A Frequency Stable Vacuum-Sealed Tube High-Power Microwave Vircator Operated at 500 Hz

Abstract

Operation of repetitive high-power microwave (HPM) sources is predominantly limited by thermal properties of anode and cathode materials. This letter presents a reflex-triode virtual cathode oscillator (vircator) capable of operating at 500 Hz at current densities between 100–200 A/cm $^{2}$ for multiple burst durations of 1–2 s. Stable vircator operation under such a thermally punishing environment is facilitated by the use of a thin pyrolytic graphite anode. The results presented focus on two anode–cathode (A–K) gap spacings: 11 and 21 mm, which produce stable microwave radiation at 4.6 and 1.6 GHz, respectively. Characteristic voltage, current, and microwave waveforms in conjunction with short-time Fourier transforms, frequency spectrographs, and HPM power density data for 1000 and 500 pulses at 1.6 and 4.6 GHz, respectively, are presented.