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Influence of an external static magnetic field on prebreakdown electron emission and heating

Roni Koitermaa1,2,*, Marzhan Toktaganova1, Andreas Kyritsakis2, Tauno Tiirats2, Alexej Grudiev3, Veronika Zadin2,†, and Flyura Djurabekova1,‡

  • *Contact author: roni.koitermaa@helsinki.fi; roni.koitermaa@iki.fi
  • †Contact author: veronika.zadin@ut.ee
  • ‡Contact author: flyura.djurabekova@helsinki.fi
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Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 29, 074301 – Published 22 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/m9d7-tycw

Abstract

High magnetic fields can increase the occurrence of vacuum arcing, suggesting that both electric and magnetic fields can play a role in the vacuum arcing process. The mechanism of vacuum arcing in high magnetic fields is believed to involve both the cathode and the anode, with the cathode serving as the originator of field-emitting nanoprotrusions or tips, while the anode serves a secondary role. Significant heating of the anode surface can be achieved by magnetic focusing of the emitted electron beam, leading to an increased heat flux due to greater current density. We simulated the emitted electron beam in different configurations of the electric and magnetic fields using the particle-in-cell and finite-element methods. The heating caused by the impacting electron beam was simulated for magnetic fields ranging from 0 to 30 T. The directions of the electric and magnetic fields were found to play a major role in the focusing of the electron beam. We found that a sufficient temperature increase on the anode surface for evaporation can be reached at magnetic fields on the order of 10–30 T, suggesting the possibility of plasma initiation on the anode side.

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Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 29, 074301– Published 22 July, 2026
  • Received 22 October 2025
  • Accepted 9 June 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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