Susceptibility of Single-Surface Multipactor Driven by Non-Sinusoidal Transverse RF Electric Field

Single-surface multipactor discharges near a microwave window are a limiting factor in space-based microwave transmission systems. The mitigation of multipactor is of importance for signal transmission. Here a non-sinusoidal electric field, e.g., Gaussian waveform, is proposed to reduce the multipactor strength, and the corresponding susceptibility of multipactor versus the rf electric field amplitude is investigated via particle-in-cell simulations and multiple particle Monte Carlo simulations. The results show that, at a larger half peak width of a Gaussian waveform Δτ = 0.15T with T = 1 ns the rf period, the susceptibility of multipactor is similar to that of a single frequency sinusoidal waveform-driven multipactor. However, at a decreased half peak width Δτ = 0.07T, the multipactor strength decreases with increasing rf electric field amplitude, the unit growth rate is a closed curve in the plane of rf electric field amplitude and dc restoring electric field, implying the effectiveness of Gaussian waveform in mitigating the multipactor strength in real application.