Title :
Gigawatt Emission From a 2.4-GHz Compact Magnetically Insulated Line Oscillator (MILO)
Author :
Cousin, Richard ; Larour, Jean ; Gardelle, Jacques ; Cassany, Bruno ; Modin, Patrick ; Gouard, Philippe ; Raymond, Pierre
Author_Institution :
Ecole Polytech., Palaiseau
Abstract :
High-power-microwave (HPM) emission has been observed in S-band with a compact magnetically insulated line oscillator (MILO). The device is driven by a low-impedance Marx generator which was designed and built at Commissariat a l´Energie Atomique, Centre d´Etudes Scientifiques et Techniques d´Aquitaine for HPM experiments. Measurements with fast and sensitive I-dot probes, installed inside the slow-wave structure (SWS), have given the evidence of the MILO oscillation. The main frequency at 2.40 GHz is confirmed by measuring the emitted radiation by using both an in-vacuum antenna and a horn placed in the far-field region. The frequency response of the MILO SWS is compared to a 3-D simulation performed with MAGIC, an electromagnetic particle-in-cell code. In the first configuration, a microwave output power of 1 GW has been obtained, which is in good agreement with the simulations. Then, an optimization of the cathode geometry has led to an increase of the pulse duration and to a better stability of the emission frequency. Finally, based on the fair agreement between the experimental results and the corresponding simulations, a novel design is presented, which should give a higher emitted power at 2.34 GHz.
Keywords :
UHF generation; UHF oscillators; antennas in plasma; microwave oscillators; plasma filled waveguides; slow wave structures; Gigawatt Emission; Magnetically Insulated Line Oscillator; S-band; cathode geometry; electromagnetic particle-in-cell code; emission frequency; frequency 2.4 GHz; high-power-microwave emission; in-vacuum antenna; low-impedance Marx generator; optimization; plasma- loaded waveguides; power 1 GW; pulse duration; slow-wave structure; Antenna measurements; Atomic measurements; Electromagnetic measurements; Electromagnetic radiation; Frequency measurement; Frequency response; Horn antennas; Insulation; Oscillators; Probes; Conical antennas; magnetic insulation; microwave measurements; microwave oscillators; modeling; plasma-loaded waveguides;
Journal_Title :
Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TPS.2007.906122