High-power gyrotron traveling-wave amplifier with distributed wall losses and attenuating severs

Abstract

Distributed-loss gyrotron traveling-wave amplifiers (gyro-TWTs) with high-gain, broadband, and millimeter-wave capabilities have been demonstrated. Most structures with distributed wall losses are stabilized in gyro-TWTs that operate at low beam currents. Attenuating severs are added to the interaction circuit of a distributed-loss gyro-TWT to prevent high beam currents that result in mode competition. Simulation results show that gyrotron backward-wave oscillations (gyro-BWOs) are not effectively suppressed by the lossy section; in contrast, the severed sections can effectively enhance the start-oscillation threshold of gyro-BWOs in the proposed gyro-TWT. Meanwhile, localized reflective oscillations seem not to occur in the gyro-TWT unless it operates at a high magnetic field or with a high interaction length. The stable gyro-TWT, operating in the low-loss TE01 mode, is predicted to yield a peak output power of 405 kW at 33 GHz with an efficiency of 20%, a saturated gain of 77 dB and a 3 dB bandwidth of 2.5 GHz for a 100 kV, 20 A electron beam with an axial velocity spread of Δvz∕vz=5%.