In April 2005, a UCLA team headed by chemistry professor James K. Gimzewski and physics professor Seth Putterman utilized a tungsten probe attached to a pyroelectric crystal to increase the electric field strength. Brian Naranjo, a graduate student working under Putterman, conducted the experiment demonstrating the use of a pyroelectric power source for producing fusion on a laboratory bench top device. The device used a lithium tantalate () pyroelectric crystal to ionize deuterium atoms and to accelerate the deuterons towards a stationary erbium dideuteride (ErD) target. Around 1000 fusion reactions per second took place, each resulting in the production of an 820 keV helium-3 nucleus and a 2.45 MeV neutron. The team anticipates applications of the device as a neutron generator or possibly in microthrusters for space propulsion.
A team at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, led by Yaron Danon and his graduate student Jeffrey Geuther, improved upon the UCLA experiments using a device with two pyroelectric crystals and capable of operating at non-cryogenic temperatures.
Pyroelectric fusion has been hyped in the news media, which overlooked the work of Dougar Jabon, Fedorovich and Samsonenko. Pyroelectric fusion is not related to the earlier claims of fusion reactions, having been observed during sonoluminescence (bubble fusion) experiments conducted under the direction of Rusi Taleyarkhan of Purdue University. Naranjo of the UCLA team was one of the main critics of these earlier prospective fusion claims from Taleyarkhan.