Simulation Investigation of an Improved MILO

Magnetically insulated line oscillator (MILO) is a gigawatt-class high-power microwave source whose behavior has been investigated experimentally and numerically. This paper presents an improved MILO model. A novel beam dump, a one-cavity RF choke section and a novel mode-transducing antenna are introduced into the improved MILO. The improved MILO is investigated in detail with particle-in-cell method (KARAT code). In simulation, high-power microwave of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) mode is generated with peak power of 4.2 GW, frequency of 1.76 GHz, and peak power conversion efficiency of 12%, when the voltage is 600 kV and the current is 52 kA. A novel plate-inserted mode-transducing antenna, which is composed of a plate-inserted mode converter and a coaxial horn, is introduced into the improved MILO. The TEM wave generated by the MILO propagates down the section of coaxial waveguide and is transformed into the TE₁₁ mode by the novel plate-inserted mode converter, and then radiated by the coaxial horn antenna into air. The direction of the radiated microwave agrees with the axis of the MILO