Formation of a laminar electron flow for 300 GHz high-power pulsed gyrotron

Abstract

This paper describes the design of a triode magnetron injection gun for use in a 200 kW, 300 GHz gyrotron. As power and frequency increase, the performance of the gyrotron becomes quite sensitive to the quality of the electron beam. Formation of a laminar electron flow is essential for the realization of a high quality beam with a small velocity spread. In this study, a new method is developed for a quantitative evaluation of the laminarity and is applied to optimize the electrode design. The laminarity depends not only on conventional design parameters such as the cathode slant angle but also on the spatial distribution of the electric field along the beam trajectory. In the optimized design, the velocity pitch factors, α, larger than 1.2 are obtained at 65 kV, 10 A with spreads, Δα, less than 5%.