A 0.33-THz second-harmonic frequency-tunable gyrotron**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61471007, 61531002, 61522101, and 11275206) and the Seeding Grant for Medicine and Information Science of Peking University, China (Grant No. 2014-MI-01).

Abstract

Dynamics of the axial mode transition process in a 0.33-THz second-harmonic gyrotron is investigated to reveal the physical mechanism of realizing broadband frequency tuning in an open cavity circuit. A new interaction mechanism about propagating waves, featured by wave competition and wave cooperation, is presented and provides a new insight into the beam-wave interaction. The two different features revealed in the two different operation regions of low-order axial modes (LOAMs) and high-order axial modes (HOAMs) respectively determine the characteristic of the overall performance of the device essentially. The device performance is obtained by the simulation based on the time-domain nonlinear theory and shows that using a 12-kV/150-mA electron beam and TE−3,4 mode, the second harmonic gyrotron can generate terahertz radiations with frequency-tuning ranges of about 0.85 GHz and 0.60 GHz via magnetic field and beam voltage tuning, respectively. Additionally, some non-stationary phenomena in the mode startup process are also analyzed. The investigation in this paper presents guidance for future developing high-performance frequency-tunable gyrotrons toward terahertz applications.