Space charge instabilities in gyrotron beams and theory of gyro-traveling-wave-amplifiers at cyclotron harmonics

Thesis/Dissertation · Thu Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:7233534

Li, H

This dissertation concerns itself with two important issues in the study of gyrotrons. In Part I, the authors study the space charge instabilities in gyrotron electron beams via both solution of the linear dispersion equation and the nonlinear particle simulation. The linear analysis addressed the stabilizing effects of energy spread in the beams and the gradient of the external magnetic field. The nonlinear multi-frequency simulation demonstrates that the energy spread induced by multiple unstable waves in the nonlinear saturation stage is more significant than the corresponding spread induced by a single unstable wave. This indicates that the deleterious effect on the quality of the beam will be greater than previously expected, and emphasizes the need to design electron guns which are stable to this wave mode. In Part II, the authors develop a generalized theory of gyro-traveling-wave tubes (gyro-TWTs) operating at arbitrary cyclotron harmonics. In the framework of small signal theory, the authors obtain and analyze the dispersion equation and discuss a problem of spurious counterpropagating waves excitation. In the large-signal study, the authors predict the possibility of achieving high efficiency of operation at the first four cyclotron harmonics and show that the orbital efficiency of the relativistic gyro-TWT operating at the second cyclotron harmonic with large frequency up-conversion may exceed 60%. The results obtained also demonstrate that the sensitivity of the harmonic gyro-TWT efficiency with respect to the electron velocity spread strongly depends on axial wavenumbers of the travelling waves.

• Research Organization: Maryland Univ., College Park, MD (United States)
• OSTI ID: 7233534
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
426000 -- Engineering-- Components
Electron Devices & Circuits-- (1990-)
661220* -- Particle Beam Production & Handling
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
AMPLIFIERS
BEAM OPTICS
BEAMS
CYCLOTRON HARMONICS
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRON GUNS
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
HARMONICS
LEPTON BEAMS
MICROWAVE AMPLIFIERS
MICROWAVE EQUIPMENT
OSCILLATIONS
PARTICLE BEAMS
SPACE CHARGE
Ta
Targets-- (1992-)
WAVE PROPAGATION