Microwave multipactor breakdown between two cylinders
Journal article, 2010

An analysis has been made of the microwave breakdown threshold for multipactor in an open structure comprising two parallel cylinders, approximating, e.g., parts of a helix antenna. The electron motion in the corresponding electromagnetic field is analyzed by separating the motion into a slowly varying drift velocity (driven by the ponderomotive force due to the electric field inhomogeneity) and a rapidly oscillating part (driven by the oscillating electric field). Furthermore, the curvature of the cylindrical surfaces of emission is shown to give rise to a new effect that implies a loss of electrons. This leads to a more stringent multipactor breakdown condition for the two-wire structure than for the classical situation corresponding to the case of two plane parallel infinite plates. The importance of this effect is determined by the ratio of the cylinder radii and the distance between the cylinders, and it is shown that when this ratio is small, multipactor can only occur for surfaces having very large secondary emission coefficients. A detailed analysis is also made to determine the lowest voltage between the cylinders at which multipactor becomes possible.

multipactor

Helix antenna

microwave breakdown

Author

Joel Rasch

Chalmers, Earth and Space Sciences, Nonlinear electrodynamics

Dan Anderson

Chalmers, Earth and Space Sciences, Nonlinear electrodynamics

J. Johansson

Ruag Space AB

Mietek Lisak

Chalmers, Earth and Space Sciences, Nonlinear electrodynamics

J. Puech

Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES)

E. Rakova

Russian Academy of Sciences

V.E. Semenov

Russian Academy of Sciences

IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science

0093-3813 (ISSN) 19399375 (eISSN)

Vol. 38 8 1997 - 2005 5508301

Subject Categories

Other Physics Topics

DOI

10.1109/TPS.2010.2052372

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4/5/2022 7