Characteristics of Coaxial Vircator in Three Specific Configurations

Abstract

As a novel vircator device, the coaxial vircator can attain much higher efficiency than the common virtual cathode oscillator. In this paper, coaxial vircators in three specific configurations are studied to describe the efficiency and frequency characteristics and their dependence on geometric parameters. The PIC (Particle in Cell) simulation results show that a power efficiency over 11% can be obtained from the coaxial vircator with a finite inner anode conductor, and a narrow-band output can be achieved. A direct-coupled coaxial vircator has a slightly lower efficiency of about 8%, but in this configuration the efficiency is not strongly dependent on the geometry parameters. The introduction of a reflecting cavity can effectively improve the efficiency under certain parameters. Meanwhile, the research results also indicate that improper cavity parameters will countervail some inherent advantages of the configuration with a finite inner conductor, leading to lower efficiency than that of the direct-coupled one. Meanwhile, an experiment was also carried out to testify the simulation results, and a power efficiency over 3% was obtained from the direct-coupled coaxial vircator.