High peak and average power microwave source research at Physics International

The authors describe CLIA (Computer Linear Induction Accelerator), a 750 kV, 10 kA pulse power generator using magnetic switching to produce 100-ns-long pulses at 200 Hz (150 kW average power) for longer than 1 second. An L-band magnetron, an S-band frequency agile klystron, and an L-band high-perveance klystron have been successfully operated in bursts with peak powers exceeding 1 GW and average powers approaching 10 kW. After about 1 year of operating magnetron and klystron loads on CLIA, no unanticipated limits to repetitive microwave source operation at high peak power were discovered. In 1 s, 100 Hz bursts there is no problem of neutral gas build-up that produces impedance collapse or in other ways interferes with the magnetron resonance or the klystron beam bunching or output cavity interaction. There is no diminution of cold cathode emission after several thousand discharges, and no significant erosion in the magnetron anode vanes or the klystron anodes is observed.<>