Comprehensive Particle-In-Cell Simulations of Ten-Vane Microwave Oven Free-Running 2.45 GHz 'Cooker' Magnetron With ICEPIC and CST-PS Codes

Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of a microwave oven free-running 2.45 GHz “cooker” ten-vane magnetron operating with a “cold” explosive-emission cathode in a uniform axial magnetic field are performed with two computer codes, improved concurrent electromagnetic PIC (ICEPIC), and CST Particle Studio (CST-PS). PIC simulations are done to compare results obtained by these two codes to each other and, in such a way, identify all possible advantages and disadvantages of each code performance as a reliable tool allowing to predict all important characteristics of the magnetron operation. Results of the PIC simulations show that the range of applied voltages within which the magnetron is able to operate in the $\pi $ -mode at an external uniform axial magnetic field 0.19 T is much broader as it is predicted by the CST-PS code, from 4.00 to 4.70 kV, than as it predicted by the ICEPIC code, from 3.90 to 4.10 kV. It is also shown that while the magnetron startup time gradually decreases, as it is predicted by the ICEPIC code, from about 700 ns (3.90 kV) to about 100 ns (4.20 kV) with the applied voltage increase, it initially chaotically varies, as it is predicted by the CST-PS code, between about 1000 ns (4.03 kV) and about 300 ns (4.01 kV) and only then gradually decreases down to 10–20 ns (4.40–4.60 kV) with the applied voltage increase. Additional PIC simulation with MAGIC or VORPAL codes would be interesting to perform as well to compare the obtained with these codes simulation results with results described in this article.