Development and application of a parallel two-dimensional particle-in-cell code based on an existing three-dimensional parallel PIC code

Summary form only given. ICEPIC (improved concurrent electromagnetic particle-in-cell) is a parallel, three-dimensional PIC code being used and developed at the air force research laboratory. Its principal application is to high-power microwave devices. ICEPIC was designed from the beginning as a parallel code, and does make efficient use of a wide range of available parallel resources. A desirable middle ground is thus to enable ICEPIC to deal with two-dimensional problems, thereby thereby giving the researcher an integrated parallel computing framework in which all aspects of the design sequence can be performed, from initial scoping calculations to final design validations. Comparisons of two-dimensional ICEPIC calculations to other two-dimensional PIC codes, as well as to three-dimensional ICEPIC calculations will be made for a variety of HPM devices. Studies of the effectiveness of parallelization in two-dimensional calculations will also be presented.