Chaotic oscillations in a delayed feedback traveling wave tube oscillator

Many vacuum microwave electron devices, such as backward wave oscillators (BWO), traveling wave tubes (TWT), free-electron lasers (FEL), can demonstrate chaotic oscillation regimes. Generation of chaotic signals is important for a number of applications including modern communicating systems (communication with chaos), microwave plasma heating, particle accelerators. In this report, we present the results of numerical and experimental study of chaotic behavior in a delayed feedback TWT oscillator. Despite the fact that transition to chaos in the TWT was discovered more then 20 years ago, details of the chaotic regimes are still poorly understood.