Excitation of orotron oscillations at the doubled frequency of a surface wave

Abstract

We study theoretically an electron frequency self-multiplier in which a surface mode of a periodic system is self-excited at a low frequency for a comparatively low current. The electron bunches, which appear as a result of this, excite the volume mode of an open resonator at the doubled frequency (coherent Smith-Purcell radiation). The open-resonator scheme allows one to obtain the higher power and coherence degree of radiation compared with the presently popular frequency multiplication scheme with an open periodic system (diffraction grating). The weakly relativistic and relativistic variants of the multipliers with a two-mirror open resonator designed for obtaining a high-power coherent radiation in the short-wavelength part of the millimeter and submillimeter ranges are studied numerically. The developed approach can also be used for designing high-power frequency multipliers on the basis of an array of nonlinear solid-state elements.