Exploration of a Kilowatt-Level Terahertz Amplifier Based on Higher-Order Mode Interaction

Abstract

The parameters for a kilowatt-level high-power terahertz amplifier were explored based on the higher-order mode and extended-interaction mechanism. It has been demonstrated that the antisymmetric electrical field mode (TM <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">21</sub> ) has a unique advantage in achieving high power. Physical factors on power extraction were studied. In particular, the heavily reduced <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${Q}_{{0}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> has a great effect on the coupling characteristic as well as the output power. It is found that the critical coupling state, i.e., <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${Q}_{e} = {Q}_{{0}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , defines an upper limit of the power that can be extracted from the output circuit. The design of a complete interaction circuit was accomplished. The particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations showed that a saturated power of 1.2 kW can be achieved at 220 GHz with a voltage of 45 kV and a total current of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2\times0.6$ </tex-math></inline-formula> A where two beams were used. The saturated gain is over 30 dB with a 3-dB bandwidth of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim 400$ </tex-math></inline-formula> MHz.