Compact High-current Accelerators Research Articles

Generation of Powerful Ultrashort Microwave Pulses

We study theoretically and experimentally the possibility of generation of ultrashort powerful microwave pulses. The regime of spatial accumulation of electromagnetic energy is considered in the case where the pulse propagates oppositely to the electron flow in a long slow-wave structure. We show that during transformation of the kinetic energy of electrons to the energy of an electromagnetic pulse, the pulse power is not limited by the electron-beam power. Using compact high-current accelerators, we obtain gigawatt pulses in the 3-cm and 8-mm wavelength ranges with power conversion factor exceeding unity.