Novel DARC sources
- Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
In the dc to ac radiation converter (DARC source), a relativistic, under dense ionization front (plasma/vacuum boundary) directly converts the static electric field of an array of alternatively biased capacitors into a short pulse of tunable radiation. In previous experiments, frequencies continuously tunable from 6 to 21 GHz, and 39 to 93 GHz were produced with devices consisting of capacitor plates. In order to increase the power of the pulses produced by the DARC source, a new device in the microwave frequency range has been designed in which pins inserted in the C-band waveguide through its narrow side wall replace the capacitor of the previous devices. Cold tests show that between the stopbands created by the periodic pins the insertion loss of the structure is much smaller (<0.2 dB). The authors plan to operate a DARC source in the theraherz frequency range by using a capacitor array with d = 300 {micro}m, and plasma densities in the 10{sup 17} cm{sup {minus}3} range. Nitrogen or xenon gas will be used and will be field-ionized by a 150 fs laser pulse. Experimental results will be presented.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- National Science Foundation, Washington, DC (United States); USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG03-92ER40745
- OSTI ID:
- 346887
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-980601--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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