Influence of secondary electron emission characteristic of dielectric materials on microwave breakdown

Abstract

For a microwave device filled with dielectrics, the secondary electron (SE) emission has a very important influence on the mechanism of microwave breakdown including low pressure discharge and multipactor. In this work, the SE yields (SEYs) and the SE energy spectra of seven kinds of dielectric materials are first measured and then used to examine their effects. In the positive charging process under electron irradiation, the surface potential of the dielectric layer trends to be steady with the SEY being one. Based on the measurement data, the steady surface potential is calculated under the charging stability condition. The steady surface potential is bigger for a bigger SEY. For a given SEY, the steady surface potential is found to be proportional to the peak energy <i>E</i><sub>peak</sub> of the SE energy spectrum. Furthermore, the effect of steady surface potential on low pressure discharge and multipactor are respectively studied for a parallel plate system filled with a dielectric layer. A static electric field related to the positive charging is introduced. The electron diffusion model in low pressure discharge process is modified by considering the static electric field. The electrons drift in a fixed direction under the action of static electric field, and the electron diffusion length decreases. Consequently, the effective electrons for low discharge decreases and the threshold microwave power increases. Therefore, a dielectric material with higher SEY and bigger <i>E</i><sub>peak</sub> is helpful in suspending the inhibition of low pressure discharge. Furthermore, the effect of steady electric field on multipactor is also explored. Two effects related to dielectric material and metal are analyzed in detail. The SE emission from dielectric material is held back by the steady electric field and some low energy electrons return back to the dielectric materials. The effective SEY thus decreases. On the other hand, the electric field reduces the landing electron energy on the metal, and the corresponding SEY also decreases. The electron oscillation condition with considering both microwave field and stead electric field is derived and the threshold values for microwave power of multipactor are calculated. The susceptibility curves corresponding to different materials are plotted. Our result may be used to choose the filling dielectric materials for a microwave device.