Hybrid resonant modes of two-sided multipactor and transition to the polyphase regime

A plane parallel model of multipactor is studied in detail using both an analytical approach and numerical simulations. The analytical analysis is carried out within a widely exploited approximation, which assumes a fixed value for the initial velocity of secondary electrons. It is shown that the commonly accepted picture of the multipactor zones is not quite complete and should be modified by taking into account the existence of hybrid resonance modes and the important consequences of a secondary emission yield that significantly exceeds unity. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the chart of the multipactor zones is also very sensitive to a spread of the initial velocity of the electrons. In particular, the full effect of initial electron velocities cannot accurately be modeled by using a single fixed value only. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.