Theory and Experiment of a W-Band Tunable Gyrotron Oscillator

A gyrotron capable of both frequency and power tuning is a promising coherent millimeter-THz wave source. A self-consistent nonlinear theory is applied to investigate the electron cyclotron interaction between electron beam and wave modes of axial nonfixed profiles in an extended W-band TE₀₁ mode cylindrical cavity. It is revealed that tuning the magnetic field strength can excite electron cyclotron resonances on forward wave, backward wave, and even simultaneous on both waves, which makes the system operate under distinctive states, namely the gyrotron backward wave oscillation state and the gyromonotron state. In this paper, a W-band prototype gyrotron oscillator based on an extended cylindrical waveguide cavity is built, and the experiment test indicates that the system starts oscillation in a relative wide range of the operation parameters. The measured frequency spectrum reveals the system iteratively switches between the lower order instability axial modes, and it operates under nonstationary oscillation states. The experimental measurement of highest output power ~8 kW is consistent with the theoretical predictions. An optimized gyrotron circuit with efficiency exceeding 20% and tunable bandwidth over 10 GHz is also presented. The free oscillation behaviors revealed in this paper provide interesting guidance for developing tunable gyrotrons in millimeter-THz wave range.