The dependence of vircator oscillation mode on cathode material

Abstract

This paper presents the effects of cathode materials on the oscillation mode of a virtual cathode oscillator (vircator). In the case of the stainless steel cathode, an oscillation mode hopping appeared with two separate frequencies. Interestingly, the vircator using the carbon fiber cathode exhibited an almost unchanged microwave frequency throughout the microwave pulse. To understand this phenomenon, several parameters are compared, including the diode voltage, accelerating gap, emitting area, and beam uniformity. It was found that a flat-top voltage and a relatively stable gap will provide a possibility of generating a constant microwave frequency. Further, the cathode operated in a regime where the beam current was between the space-charge limited current determined by Child–Langmuir law and the bipolar flow. On the cathode surface, the electron emission is initiated from discrete plasma spots and next from a continuing area, while there is a liberation process of multilayer gases on the anode surface. The changes in the emitting area of carbon fiber cathode showed a self-quenching process, which is not observed in the case of stainless steel cathode. The two-dimensional effect of microwave frequency is introduced, and the obtained results supported the experimental observations on the oscillation mode. By examining the cross section of electron beam, the electron beam for carbon fiber cathode was significantly centralized, while the discrete beam spots appeared for stainless steel cathode. These results show that the slowed diode closure, high emission uniformity, and stable microwave frequency tend to be closely tied.