A new multipactor saturation mechanism is presented for high power microwave devices in the presence of dielectrics. Recent measures have shown that the positive charge deposited on a dielectric as a consequence of the secondary electron emission causes the reduction of its secondary electron yield. This work shows a new multipactor dynamics within a partially filled parallel-plate waveguide where both the decrease of the secondary electron yield with the charge on the dielectric and the subsequent electrostatic field produced are taken into account. The results obtained show that these two mechanisms predict the multipactor saturation as well as some differences with the classical resonance theory when charged dielectrics come into play.

Abstract-This paper is aimed at studying the electromagnetic radiation pattern of a multipactor discharge occurring in a parallel-plate waveguide. The proposed method is based on the Fourier expansion of the multipactor current in terms of timeharmonic currents radiating in the parallel-plate region. Classical radiation theory combined with the frequency domain Green's function of the problem allows the calculation of both the electric and the magnetic radiated fields. A novel analytical formula for the total radiated power of each multipactor harmonic has been derived. This formula is suitable for predicting multipactor with the third-harmonic technique. The proposed formulation has been successfully tested with a particle-in-cell code.Index Terms-Microwave discharges, multipactor effect, parallel-plate waveguide, radiated power, third-harmonic detection technique.

The saturation stage of a multipactor discharge is considered of interest, since it can guide towards a criterion to assess the multipactor onset. The electron cloud under multipactor regime within a parallel-plate waveguide is modeled by a thin continuous distribution of charge and the equations of motion are calculated taking into account the space charge effects. The saturation is identified by the interaction of the electron cloud with its image charge. The stability of the electron population growth is analyzed and two mechanisms of saturation to explain the steady-state multipactor for voltages near above the threshold onset are identified. The impact energy in the collision against the metal plates decreases during the electron population growth due to the attraction of the electron sheet on the image through the initial plate. When this growth remains stable till the impact energy reaches the first cross-over point, the electron surface density tends to a constant value. When the stability is broken before reaching the first cross-over point the surface charge density oscillates chaotically bounded within a certain range. In this case, an expression to calculate the maximum electron surface charge density is found whose predictions agree with the simulations when the voltage is not too high. V C 2012 American Institute of Physics.

Multipactor is a hazardous vacuum discharge produced by secondary electron emission within microwave devices of particle accelerators and telecommunication satellites. This work analyzes the dynamics of the multipactor discharge within a coaxial line for the mono-energetic electron emission model taking into account the space charge effects. The steady-state is predicted by the proposed model and an analytical expression for the maximum number of electrons released by the discharge presented. This could help to link simulations to experiments and define a multipactor onset criterion.