Numerical analysis for suppression of charge growth using nested grooves in rectangular waveguides

Abstract

Multipactor mitigation is of relevance to microwave applications, and external magnetic fields, surface modifications, and materials engineering have previously been utilized for this purpose. In this contribution, geometric modifications made to rectangular waveguide surfaces in the form of nested grooves are investigated for the suppression of multipactor growth. A time-dependent kinetic scheme is used to simulate electron dynamics that folds in electron trapping at the nested groove structures, with inclusion of the electric field perturbations arising from the presence of various grooved geometries. The charge growth in the system is modeled based on an empirical approach that includes both energy and angular dependencies of secondary electron emission from all the different surfaces. A varying number of grooves, their widths, and their placement (either one sided or dual-sided) within the rectangular waveguide structure are included for a more complete analysis. The results demonstrate that nested grooves can lead to reductions in charge growth by over a factor of 280 when compared with a simple waveguide over the same time period. Furthermore, wider nested grooves are shown to have an advantage, with multiple aligned grooves across two parallel surfaces being especially useful at high external fields. Determining optimal combinations for an arbitrary field, operating frequency, and physical dimensions would require further work.