Virtual Prototyping of Directed Energy Weapons

This paper gives an overview of how RF systems, from pulsed power to antennas, may be virtually prototyped with the Improved Concurrent Electromagnetic Particle-in-Cell (ICEPIC) code. ICEPIC simulates from first principles (Maxwell?s equations and Lorenz?s force law) the electrodynamics and charged particle dynamics of the RF-producing part of the system. Our simulations focus on gigawatt-class sources; the relativistic magnetron is shown as an example. Such simulations require enormous computational resources. These simulations successfully expose undesirable features of these sources and help us to suggest improvements.