Gyrotron-powered millimeter-wave beam facility for microwave processing of materials

Summary form only given, as follows. The high intensity millimeter-wave beams (10/sup 3/-10/sup 5/ W/cm/sup 2/) that can be generated by powerful gyrotron oscillators have unique capabilities for rapid, selective heating of nonmetallic materials. A new CW gyrotron-based system is being set up at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to investigate such beams. The facility is being operated jointly by NRL and the Center for Remote Sensing (CRS) and will be applied to important areas of material processing including: coating of materials, soldering and brazing, and treatment of ceramics and polymers. The heart of the system is a Gycom, Ltd. industrial 83 GHz gyrotron operating at 27 kV and 1.9 A, and producing 15 kW of power in a Gaussian beam. This paper will describe the new facility, including the gyrotron, work chamber, and control system. Available results of initial beam characterization and material heating experiments will also be presented.