3D ICEPIC simulations of a pulsed relativistic magnetron with transparent cathode: A comparative study

Ongoing research at the University of New Mexico (UNM) shows significant improvement in the start and rate-of-build-up of microwave oscillations in a relativistic magnetron driven by a transparent cathode [1,2]. Nearly all simulation work on this cathode to-date has been carried out utilizing the MAGIC particle-in-cell (PIC) code. Simulations of the A6 magnetron with transparent cathode using the 3-dimensional code Improved Concurrent Electromagnetic Particle-In-Cell (ICEPIC) at the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) were carried out to examine the performance of the transparent code and compare with results from MAGIC. Output parameters such as microwave power, microwave frequency and anode current all as function of axial magnetic field are presented and compared with the MAGIC results.