Low-secondary electron emission yield under electron bombardment of microstructured surfaces, looking for multipactor effect suppression

Highlights: • Multipactor effect is avoided, This RF breakdown may render the specific RF device useless and degrades the reliability of the space satellites. • Low-secondary electron emission coatings, SEY • First correlation between SEY parameters and the multIpactor power level. - Abstract: The reduction of the total secondary electron emission during electron-matter interactions is required to improve the maximum power limit of the vacuum RF equipments prone to multipactor discharge. In this work, a chemical deposition technique was developed to create the appropriate micron or submicron surface roughness to significantly improve the typical characteristics of the flat silver coatings used for high-power microwave devices for space applications. Rough silver coated RF filters with a high surface aspect ratio, >3, was achieved. It is found that the secondary electron emission yield (SEY) remains lower than 1 throughout the primary electron energy range and therefore multipactor electron avalanche is avoided. The influence of aging on the multipactor discharge is also drastically reduced in rough silver coatings. An experimental linear correlation was found between the multipactor power level and the minimum interaction energy for which the number of incident and emitted electrons is equal.