Cyclotron resonance maser operating in a nonresonant electron bunching regime

Abstract

A new scheme of the cyclotron resonance maser (CRM) based on the phenomenon of electron bunching in a nonresonant wave field is proposed. In this scheme, the electron-wave interaction space is divided into two regions due to magnetic field profiling. In the first (input) region, the magnetic field is such that the working traveling wave is relatively far from the resonance with electrons. It is established that, under certain conditions, the motion of electrons in a nonresonant wave field is accompanied by their effective bunching without significant changes in the energy. In the second (output) region, the magnetic field is close to the resonance and the bunched electron beam effectively radiates at the working wave frequency. Thus, the regular electrodynamic system features an electron-wave interaction of the klystron type with spatially separated processes of the electron bunching and wave emission. The proposed scheme can be used for increasing the efficiency of CRMs with various configurations. It is especially advantageous in CRMs with frequency multiplication, where the electron bunching in a low-frequency nonresonant wave field is accompanied by wave emission at a multiple frequency.