General Study of Multipactor Between Curved Metal Surfaces

An analytical study of the electron trajectories between two opposite electrodes having curved surfaces is undertaken for the case when the electron transit time exceeds the RF period. The analysis is based on a statistical approach, which makes it possible to calculate the width of an electron bunch after a number of electron transits taking into account the spread of electron emission velocity, and the spatial nonuniformity of the RF field using the concept of the ponderomotive force. The results are used to estimate the multipactor threshold in terms of a value of the secondary emission yield, which is necessary to balance electron losses. Based on the model, it is predicted that multipactor is impossible inside the realistic configuration of a helix antenna where four electrodes are placed on the same cylindrical surface.