A New Approach to Formation and Directed Radiation of Powerful Short Radio Pulses

Abstract

This article details a new method for formation and directional radiation of short high-power electromagnetic (EM) pulses, which is based on a wave analog of the Smith–Purcell effect. The presented device cycles through two stages. At the stage of energy accumulation, a slow wave of an open guiding structure interacts with a periodic chain of storage resonators and excites high-Q free field oscillations in each resonator of this chain. The phase of oscillations inside the storage resonators differs by a constant value, and the amplitude increases with time. At the radiation stage, the chain of storage resonators is opened to radiation (as it usually happens in active compressors of EM pulses), and short powerful pulses burst out into free space in strictly defined directions. The proposed design is considered in detail for the simplest model of a device. The results obtained during its rigorous electrodynamic analysis look rather promising; the continuation of this work can contribute to solving a number of urgent problems of physics and technology of millimeter and submillimeter waves.