A phase-locked transit time oscillator operated with low external guiding magnetic field

Abstract

A phase-locked coaxial transit time oscillator is designed for microwave sources with a small volume and low magnetic field in high-power microwave coherent combining. The oscillator achieves controlled output phase through pre-modulation of electron beams. To improve the phase-locked performance with low magnetic fields, a reentrant input cavity is used to ensure the stability and uniformity of the electric field. Electric field uniformity of the buncher and extractor is also improved. To reduce the device volume, a reflector with pre-modulation function is used to reduce the axial size of the device. Particle-in-cell simulation shows that 5 kW input power is sufficient to lock-in a 610 MW output microwave, with a conversion efficiency of 40.6% at 0.66 T. The input power ratio reaches −50.8 dB. Simulation results demonstrate that the device can still achieve phase locking with a magnetic field as low as 0.5 T.