Impact of Amorphous Carbon Thin Films on the Suppression of Multipactor Effects

JIANG Zhaomin; CHU Kun; HU Xiaochuan; FENG Guobao

doi:10.16490/j.cnki.issn.1001-3660.2026.02.020

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Surface Technology ›› 2026, Vol. 55 ›› Issue (2) : 266-277. DOI: 10.16490/j.cnki.issn.1001-3660.2026.02.020

Functional Surfaces and Technology

Impact of Amorphous Carbon Thin Films on the Suppression of Multipactor Effects

JIANG Zhaomin¹, CHU Kun¹, HU Xiaochuan^1,*, FENG Guobao²

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Abstract

Multipactor is one of the key factors leading to on-orbit failure of high-power spaceflight microwave devices. The work aims to elucidate the mechanism of how amorphous carbon (a-C) thin films modulate the secondary electron emission (SEE) properties of copper (Cu) surfaces in order to suppress the multipactor effect in microwave devices and to quantify its suppression effect in parallel flat plates and coaxial transmission lines. The direct current magnetron sputtering technique was used to deposit a-C thin films on Cu substrates. Then, the secondary electron yield (SEY) of Cu and a-C/Cu samples was measured by the bias current method, respectively, and the secondary electron spectrum (SES) at 300 eV incident electron energy was recorded with the electrostatic electron spectroscopy technique. Based on the Furman theory, a Monte Carlo model was developed to predict the SEE properties of Cu and a-C/Cu. Subsequently, CST Studio Suite electromagnetic simulation software was used to construct parallel flat plate and coaxial transmission line structure models. The effect of a-C film on the threshold voltage of the multipactor was investigated by depositing it on the inner wall of the microwave structure. The thickness of the deposited a-C film layer was (1.27 ± 0.05) μm, measured by scanning electron microscope (SEM). This coating reduced the maximum value of SEY for Cu from 2.18 to 1.65, which was a 24.1% reduction. The first critical energy increased from 36 eV to 58 eV, and the second critical energy decreased from 2 843 eV to 1 000 eV. Meanwhile, the intensity and area of the intrinsic peak of the SES decayed by 44% and 33%, respectively. By comparing the deviation between the Monte Carlo predicted SEY results and the experimental results, it was found that the maximum error of Cu occurred at an incident energy of 800 eV, with an error value of 14%, while the maximum error of a-C/Cu occurred at an incident energy of 1 000 eV, with an error value of 4%. The model fitted well with experimental results. CST simulations showed that the a-C film compressed the multipactor sensitive interval of the parallel flat plate model by 42.3% in the frequency range of 2 to 9 GHz·mm. Specifically, when f × d= 3 GHz·mm, the lower threshold voltage increased by 17.9% from 237.7 V to 280.42 V, and the upper threshold voltage decreased by 25.3% from 898.89 V to 671.34 V. The coaxial transmission line model showed a similar trend, with the lower and upper threshold voltages varying by +11.29 V and -60.56 V, respectively. The results show that the a-C thin film can reduce the SEY of Cu materials, which in turn has a significant suppression effect on the SEE of Cu. The film results in a significant reduction of the multipactor sensitivity interval for two typical microwave structures, a parallel flat plate and a coaxial transmission line. It has been demonstrated that a-C thin films, as a low-cost and scalable surface modification strategy, can effectively enhance the anti-multipactor capability of microwave devices in extreme spatial environments. The combination of experiments and simulations provides a strong scientific basis for understanding and suppressing multipactor effects and provides theoretical support for the surface modification design of spacecraft microwave devices.

Key words

multipactor / amorphous carbon film / secondary electron emission / Furman model / Monte Carlo method

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JIANG Zhaomin, CHU Kun, HU Xiaochuan, FENG Guobao. Impact of Amorphous Carbon Thin Films on the Suppression of Multipactor Effects[J]. Surface Technology. 2026, 55(2): 266-277

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Funding

National Key Laboratory Foundation (2024-CXPT-GF-JJ-013-02); Science and Technology Plan Project of Xi 'an (24GDW0023); Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi (2023-JC-YB-004)