Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

The linear theory of the Clustered-Cavity[trademark] Klystron

Journal Article · · IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/27.338287· OSTI ID:6535646
;  [1]
  1. Litton Electron Devices, San Carlos, CA (United States)
In the Clustered-Cavity Klystron, the individual intermediate cavities of a multicavity klystron are replaced by pairs or triplets of artificially-loaded cavities having Q's reduced to one-half or one-third that of the single cavity they replace. The cavity spacing within the multiplet is as close as possible. The spacing from the center of a multiplet to the center of the next is about one-quarter of a space-charge wavelength. A simplistic way of explaining the improved bandwidth is to realize that the two or three cavities in the multiplet are tuned to essentially the same frequency and are excited by essentially the same RF current so they act on the beam in unison to form a new bunch, in the same way a single cavity might, but over two or three times the bandwidth. The actual physics is more complex, and in particular, when cavity spacings in a klystron differ from one-quarter of a space-charge (Langmuir) wavelength, velocity currents become important. These have not normally been included in the analytic theory of broadband klystrons. In this paper the authors point out the necessary corrections to the theory of broadband klystrons. Using the clustered-cavity principle, the bandwidth of two high-power klystrons has been doubled without changing the outside dimensions of the tubes. The theory in this paper predicts that bandwidths in the order of 30% can be obtained in megawatt klystrons using about fifteen intermediate cavities arranged in triplets. In ultrarelativistic klystrons, the added gain-bandwidth product provided by the cavity clusters can be used to provide high gain together with reasonable bandwidth in a reasonable length. By using cavity clusters, it is possible to build a fairly-short very-relativistic klystron that still retains a considerable bandwidth.
OSTI ID:
6535646
Journal Information:
IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States), Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States) Vol. 22:5; ISSN ITPSBD; ISSN 0093-3813
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English