Transportation of over-limiting beam in the waveguide with plasma dams

Abstract

Theoretical and experimental investigations, performed during the development of microwave generators with virtual cathode, where anode in the form of thin plasma sheet is used by Babkin, Dubinov and Kornilov, (1997), suggested an idea to replace thin films and foils in the transporting channels by thin plasma dams. But this decision requires verification. There is the possibility of beam and plasma-beam instabilities in the channel, which could ruin the transportation process. For this purpose the 2.5-dimensional version of the known software pack "ICARAT", based on fully compatible PIC-code, were used for computer simulation of the channel with plasma dams.