The influence of magnetic field on the beam quality of relativistic electron beam long-range propagation in near-Earth environment

Abstract

In recent years, it has been proposed to use satellite-mounted radio-frequency (RF) accelerators to produce high-current relativistic electron beams to complete debris removal tasks. However, when simulating the long-range propagation (km-range) process of the electron beam, it is difficult to directly use the particle-in-cell method to simultaneously consider the space charge effect of beam and the influence of the geomagnetic field. Owing to these limitations, in this paper, we proposed a simplified method. The ps-range electronic micropulses emitted by the RF accelerator were transmitted and fused to form a ns-range electron beam; then, combined with the improved moving window technology, the model was constructed to simulate the long-range propagation process of the relativistic electron beam in near-Earth environment. Finally, by setting the direction of movement of the beam to be parallel, perpendicular and at an inclination of 3° to the magnetic field, we analyzed and compared the effects of the applied magnetic fields in different directions on the quality of the beam during long-range propagation. The simulation results showed that the parallel state of the beam motion and magnetic fields should be achieved as much as possible to ensure the feasibility of the space debris removal.