A novel beta nuclear battery concept by harvesting cyclotron emission

Nuclear batteries are essential for long-duration applications such as space exploration, yet, conventional technologies such as Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) and betavoltaics are constrained by thermodynamic and semiconductor efficiency limits. This study proposes a novel Radioisotope Cyclotron Generator (RCG) that harvests the cyclotron radiation emitted by beta particles confined within a Penning-Malmberg (PM) trap. Unlike magnetic mirror traps, which suffer from significant axial leakage, the PM trap configuration enables effectively lossless axial confinement using electrostatic potentials. To validate this concept, an in-house 2D3V axisymmetric electrostatic Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulation was developed. The electromagnetic wave harvesting efficiency was subsequently analyzed using Ansys HFSS simulations within a 28GHz resonant cavity. The integrated results demonstrate a theoretical power conversion efficiency of 34.4%. This study provides an innovative pathway toward the low-cost beta energy harvesting system.