Analysis of Plasma-Loaded Noncorrugated and Triangular Corrugated Coaxial Cavity

Abstract

A field analysis of plasma-loaded noncorrugated coaxial cavity and plasma-loaded triangular corrugated cavities for megawatt-class gyrotrons has been undertaken. The presence of magnetic field in plasma changes its characteristics to an anisotropic media. In plasma waveguide, three families of modes can exist: plasma modes (space charge modes), cyclotron modes, and waveguide EH and HE modes. The modes present in the plasma are hybrid modes with all six nonzero field components. The presence of the low-density plasma in a gyrotron cavity leads to the coupling of these families of modes and causes a shift in the eigenvalue of the operating (desired) mode. In this paper, the dispersion relation for a plasma-loaded noncorrugated and triangular corrugated coaxial cavity has been derived. For the gyrotron case, where the cyclotron frequency of the plasma is approximately equal to the operating frequency and the operating frequency is near mode cutoff frequency in the cavity, the desired HE mode couples with the cyclotron mode. This coupling leads to shift in the eigenvalue of the HE mode.