Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (U.S.)
Abstract
We will present the results of benchmarking simulations run to test the ability of VORPAL to model multipacting processes in Superconducting Radio Frequency structures. VORPAL is an electromagnetic (FDTD) particle-in-cell simulation code originally developed for applications in plasma and beam physics. The addition of conformal boundaries and algorithms for secondary electron emission allow VORPAL to be applied to multipacting processes. We start with simulations of multipacting between parallel plates where there are well understood theoretical predictions for the frequency bands where multipacting is expected to occur. We reproduce the predicted multipacting bands and demonstrate departures from the theoretical predictions when a more sophisticated model of secondary emission is used. Simulations of existing cavity structures developed at Jefferson National Laboratories will also be presented where we compare results from VORPAL to experimental data
