X-band dielectric Cerenkov maser amplifier experiment

Author

Kosai, Hiroyuki ; Garate, Eusebio ; Fisher, Amnon ; Main, William

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., California Univ., Irvine, CA, USA

Volume

20

Issue

3

fYear

1992

fDate

6/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

288

Lastpage

292

Abstract

An X-band dielectric Cerenkov maser amplifier experiment is reported. The amplifier system consisted of a solid, thermionically generated electron beam propagating through a cylindrical waveguide partially filled with an annular, dielectric liner. The input signal was provided by a tunable (9-10.3 GHz) magnetron with power up to 10 kW. Electron beam voltages and currents of up to 250 kV and 100 A could be generated for 1 μs pulse durations. The system was configured to operate in the TM₀₁ mode of the dielectric-lined waveguide. In this experiment the gain of the system with respect to the length of the dielectric liner was studied at a fixed input frequency of 10.3 GHz. At electron beam parameters of 160 kV and 60 A, a power gain of 24 dB over 56 cm of interaction length was measured for an input power of 4.5 kW, corresponding to a maximum RF amplified power of 1.15 MW and 12% efficiency

Keywords

Cherenkov radiation; amplification; masers; 1.15 MW; 100 A; 160 kV; 24 dB; 250 kV; 4.5 kW; 56 cm; 60 A; 9 to 10.3 GHz; SHF; TM₀₁ mode; X-band; cylindrical waveguide; dielectric Cerenkov maser; dielectric-lined waveguide; maser amplifier experiment; thermionically generated electron beam; tunable magnetron input signal; Dielectric measurements; Electron beams; Frequency; Gain; Masers; Power measurement; Pulse generation; Solids; Voltage; Waveguide components;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/27.142830

Filename

142830