Particle-in-cell simulation of generation of an HF sequence of short current pulses in the vircator with counter-propagating beams

Abstract

We performed a particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation of a vircator with counter electron beams in a cylindrical cavity with metal walls. Two pairs of counter-propagating superlimiting electron beams with different energy and current in each pair are injected along the cylinder axis. It is found that the electron charge in the cavity is formed as a sequence of pulses corresponding to slow accumulation and fast discharge. It is shown that the pulses are related to the characteristic dynamics of the squeezed beam state, the distributed virtual cathode. This regime can be used to generate anHF sequence of ultrawideband electromagnetic pulses.