Yibing Cao

A powerful reflector in relativistic backward wave oscillator

An improved TM{sub 021} resonant reflector is put forward. Similarly with most of the slow wave structures used in relativistic backward wave oscillator, the section plane of the proposed reflector is designed to be trapezoidal. Compared with the rectangular TM{sub 021} resonant reflector, such a structure can depress RF breakdown more effectively by weakening the localized field convergence and realizing good electrostatic insulation. As shown in the high power microwave (HPM) generation experiments, with almost the same output power obtained by the previous structure, the improved structure can increase the pulse width from 25 ns to over 27 ns and no obvious surface damage is observed even if the generated HPM pulses exceed 1000 shots.

The influence of ions and the induced secondary emission on the nanosecond high-gradient microwave breakdown at metal surface

The mechanism of ultrafast breakdown at metal/vacuum interface in the high-power microwave waveguides is studied. In order to realize the nanosecond discharge, the required ambient gas pressure above the metal surface is approximately calculated as high as several Torr due to the low ionization-rate for high-energy electrons and short pulse. The local high pressure may come from the evaporated microscopic protrusions due to Joule heating and gas desorption. Besides, ions accelerated by the ambient space charge field could obtain sufficient high energy to collide and sputter the metal atoms to increase the ambient pressure. The positive feedbacks during the rapid discharge are studied by particle-in-cell simulation. The relatively high-energy ions could generate secondary electrons. It is shown that, as the positive feedback, the secondary electrons induce the gas desorption and stronger ionization, resulting in ion and electron density increasing as well as sheath field further increasing. As a result, more higher-energy ions bombard metal surface, leading to higher secondary electron yield and higher density plasma generated to cut off the microwave transmission finally. These nonlinear courses realize the ultrafast discharge in waveguides.

A millimeter wave relativistic backward wave oscillator operating in TM03 mode with low guiding magnetic field

A V-band overmoded relativistic backward wave oscillator (RBWO) guided by low magnetic field and operating on a TM03 mode is presented to increase both the power handling capacity and the wave-beam interaction conversion efficiency. Trapezoidal slow wave structures (SWSs) with shallow corrugations and long periods are adopted to make the group velocity of TM03 mode at the intersection point close to zero. The coupling impedance and diffraction Q-factor of the RBWO increase, while the starting current decreases owing to the reduction of the group velocity of TM03 mode. In addition, the TM03 mode dominates over the other modes in the startup of the oscillation. Via numerical simulation, the generation of the microwave pulse with an output power of 425 MW and a conversion efficiency of 32% are achieved at 60.5 GHz with an external magnetic field of 1.25 T. This RBWO can provide greater power handling capacity when operating on the TM03 mode than on the TM01 mode.

Influence of wall plasma on microwave frequency and power in relativistic backward wave oscillator

The RF breakdown of the slow wave structure (SWS), which will lead to the generation of the wall plasma, is an important cause for pulse shortening in relativistic backward wave oscillators. Although many researchers have performed profitable studies about this issue, the influence mechanism of this factor on the microwave generation still remains not-so-clear. This paper simplifies the wall plasma with an “effective” permittivity and researches its influence on the microwave frequency and power. The dispersion relation of the SWS demonstrates that the introduction of the wall plasma will move the dispersion curves upward to some extent, which is confirmed by particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations and experiments. The plasma density and volume mainly affect the dispersion relation at the upper and lower frequency limits of each mode, respectively. Meanwhile, PIC simulations show that even though no direct power absorption exists since the wall plasma is assumed to be static, the introduction of the wall plasma may also lead to the decrease in microwave power by changing the electrodynamic property of the SWS.

Axial motion of collector plasma in a relativistic backward wave oscillator

In this paper, it is proposed that plasma formed at the collector may drift back to the cathode and cause pulse shortening of the relativistic backward wave oscillator. Theoretical analysis shows that the axial drift velocity of plasma ions can be up to 5 mm/ns due to the presence of space charge potential provided by an intense relativistic electron beam. Particle-in-cell simulations indicate that the plasma electrons are initially trapped around the collector surface. With the accumulation of the plasma ions, a large electrostatic field forms and drives the plasma electrons to overcome the space charge potential and enter the beam-wave interaction region along the magnetic field lines. As a result, the beam current modulation is disturbed and the output microwave power falls rapidly. The plasma ions move in the beam-wave interaction region with an average axial velocity of 5–8 mm/ns. After the plasma ions reach the diode region, the emitted current at the cathode rises due to the charge neutralizations ...

Improved power capacity in a high efficiency klystron-like relativistic backward wave oscillator by distributed energy extraction

With the efficiency increase of a klystron-like relativistic backward wave oscillator, the maximum axial electric field and harmonic current simultaneously appear at the end of the beam-wave interaction region, leading to a highly centralized energy exchange in the dual-cavity extractor and a very high electric field on the cavity surface. Thus, we present a method of distributed energy extraction in this kind of devices. Particle-in-cell simulations show that with the microwave power of 5.1 GW and efficiency of 70%, the maximum axial electric field is decreased from 2.26 MV/cm to 1.28 MV/cm, indicating a threefold increase in the power capacity.

Effective suppression of pulse shortening in a relativistic backward wave oscillator

This paper discusses pulse shortening present in a C-band relativistic backward wave oscillator (RBWO). Effects of the collector plasma are believed to be the main cause. This viewpoint is first verified in numerical simulation. The simulation results show that light charged particles such as hydrogen ions in the collector plasma would axially enter into the beam-microwave interaction region and suppress high-power microwave (HPM) generation. Simultaneously, heavy charged particles such as oxygen or ferric ions in the collector plasma would radially expand out and change the end reflection of the RBWO. All these effects can result in pulse shortening. Simulations also demonstrate that a coaxial collector can effectively suppress plasma effects by retarding their axial and radial expansions. Furthermore, a HPM experiment has confirmed the validity of the coaxial collector. Using this structure, the output power of the RBWO has been increased from 2.5 GW to 3 GW. No pulse shortening has been observed in the...

Plasma effects of the directional coupler for high-power microwave measurements

The directional coupler is an important online power measurement device based on coupling principles. It is widely used for real-time monitoring of the performance of high-power microwave devices. However, insufficient power handling capacity limits further applications of the coupler in higher-pulsed energy measurements. From a theoretical and numerical analysis, the plasma effects of breakdown on the coupler are investigated. The plasma is found to break the fixed phase relationship between the coupling holes and eventually the directivity of the coupler. As the plasma density increases, the isolation of the coupler decreases rapidly, and thus, a negative power flux in the secondary rectangular waveguide increases gradually. Simultaneously, the positive power flux fluctuates and even terminates ahead of the microwave pulse in the main circular waveguide. The conclusions provide a good interpretation of the experimental phenomena.

Dynamic of microwave breakdown in the localized places of transmitting line driving by Cherenkov-type oscillator

A breakdown cavity is designed to study the breakdown phenomena of high-power microwaves in transmission waveguides. The maximum electric field within the cavity varies in amplitude from 400 kV/cm to 1.8 MV/cm and may surpass breakdown thresholds. The breakdown cavities were studied in particle-in-cell simulations and experiments, the results of which yielded waveforms that were consistent. The experimental results indicate that the microwave pulse does not shorten, and the amplitude of the electric field does not fall below 800 kV/cm. Moreover, large numbers of electrons are not emitted in microwaves below 670 kV/cm at 9.75 GHz frequency and 25-ns pulse width transmitted in stainless steel waveguides. The radiation waveforms of breakdown cavity with different materials are compared in experiments, with titanium material performing better.

Relativistic backward wave oscillator operating in TM02 with cutoff-type resonant reflector

This paper proposes an overmoded relativistic backward wave oscillator (RBWO) operating in the TM02 mode with the cutoff-type resonant reflector characterized by the advantages of the cutoff neck and the single resonant cavity. In order to protect the explosive emission of the annular cathode from the disturbance of the microwave leakage, the cutoff-type resonant reflector can effectively prevent the microwave consisting of several modes from propagating into the diode region. Attributed to the strong reflections caused by the cutoff-type resonant reflector at the front end of the overmoded slow-wave structure (SWS), the overmoded RBWO works in the state of the strong resonance, which enhances the beam-to-microwave power conversion efficiency. TM02 is selected as the operation mode so as to increase the power handling capability. The nonuniform SWS depresses the cross-excitation of the unwanted longitudinal modes of TM02 and improves the synchronous interaction between the electron beam and the structure ...