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Efficiency scaling law for the two-stream amplifier

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.871628· OSTI ID:434667
 [1]
  1. Plasma Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)
The mechanism of conversion from the kinetic energy of electron beams to electromagnetic wave energy is investigated in the two-stream amplifier. It is shown that the optimal efficiency of the amplifier scales according to {Delta}{ital V}/{ital V} for relativistic electron beams and ({Delta}{ital V}/{ital V}){sup 2} for nonrelativistic electron beams, where {Delta}{ital V} is the axial velocity difference in the two beams and {ital V} is the mean axial beam velocity. This scaling law not only explains intrinsically low efficiencies ({approx_lt}5{percent}) observed in numerous nonrelativistic two-stream amplifier experiments, but also predicts that the optimal efficiency of a relativistic two-stream amplifier is typically greater than that of a nonrelativistic two-stream amplifier by one order of magnitude. {copyright} {ital 1996 American Institute of Physics.}
OSTI ID:
434667
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 3; ISSN 1070-664X; ISSN PHPAEN
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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