Harmonic Gyrotron Research Articles

The nonlinear simulation, design and experiments on 0.42 THz gyrotron with gradually tapered complex cavity

Gyrotron oscillators are one of promising sources to generate high power terahertz radiation. To achieve high power at high frequency, gyrotrons have to operate at high order modes to alleviate the problem of wall heating and the miniaturization of interaction structures at these frequencies. Due to high order modes, the mode spectrum is very dense and the electron beam is likely to interact with several modes. Mode competition is a major hurdle in achieving stable and efficient operation of a gyrotron at cyclotron harmonics. The gradually tapered complex cavity could suppress mode competition by locking a pair of operating modes in two single cavities. Starting from the general transmission line equations with an electron beam, self-consistent nonlinear simulations on the second harmonic complex cavity gyrotron operating at 0.42 THz are presented. The influences of the electron beam parameters on the interaction efficiency are analyzed. The experimental results show that the designed complex cavity gyrotron is operationally stable at TE17.4 with pulse output power of 22.25 kW when the beam current is 4.8 A, beam voltage is 45 kV, and applied magnetic field is 8.185 T. The corresponding frequency and interaction efficiency are 421.60 GHz and 10.27%, respectively.

Design of a Second Harmonic Double-Beam Continuous Wave Gyrotron with Operating Frequency of 0.79 THz

This paper presents the most essential steps of a design study of a novel second harmonic gyrotron operating in CW (continuous wave) regime at a frequency of 0.79 THz and an output power of 1–100 W. It is based on a novel idea for suppression of the parasitic modes using a double-beam electron-optical system (EOS). It includes a triode magnetron injection gun (MIG), which forms two high-quality helical electron beams (HEB). Different schemes, namely one with two generating beams and another with one generating and one absorbing beam, have been investigated and compared. It has been shown that the scheme with two generating beams is more advantageous since it allows an effective suppression of the parasitic modes and a stable single-mode operation at the second harmonic resonance. A MIG which is appropriate for the realization of the latter scheme has been optimized using numerical codes for computer-aided design (CAD). It forms beams with practically equal pitch factors and moderate velocity spread. The construction of the gun is not sensitive to small misalignments and shifts of the electrodes and the magnetic field. Among the most promising characteristics of the presented design are an improved mode selection and a stable single-mode generation at currents that are two to three times higher than the currents in the single-beam (i.e., conventional) gyrotrons.

Design and Simulation Analysis of a Magnetron Injection Gun for a 0.42 THz Second Harmonic Gyrotron

A double anode magnetron injection gun (MIG) for a 0.42 THz second harmonic gyrotron has been presented in this paper. Through design, simulation and optimization by the particle-in-cell code, a double-anode electron gun with maximum transverse velocity spread of 3.19 % is obtained, the beam acceleration voltage is 50 kV, operating current is 5.5 A and the ratio of the transverse velocity to the axial velocity is equal to 1.4. A comprehensive analysis of MIG for 0.42 THz second harmonic gyrotron is presented, and the designed electron gun well satisfies the requirement of the 0.42 THz gyrotron.

Suppression and nonlinear excitation of parasitic modes in second harmonic gyrotrons operating in a very high order mode

In recent years, there was an active development of high-power, sub-terahertz (sub-THz) gyrotrons for numerous applications. For example, a 0.67 THz gyrotron delivering more than 200 kW with about 20% efficiency was developed. This record high efficiency was achieved because the gyrotron operated in a high-order TE31,8-mode with the power of ohmic losses less than 10% of the power of outgoing radiation. That gyrotron operated at the fundamental cyclotron resonance, and a high magnetic field of about 27 T was created by a pulse solenoid. For numerous applications, it is beneficial to use gyrotrons at cyclotron harmonics which can operate in available cryomagnets with fields not exceeding 15 T. However, typically, the gyrotron operation at harmonics faces severe competition from parasitic modes at the fundamental resonance. In the present paper, we consider a similar 0.67 THz gyrotron designed for operation in the same TE31,8-mode, but at the second harmonic. We focus on two nonlinear effects typical for interaction between the fundamental and second harmonic modes, viz., the mode suppression and the nonlinear excitation of the mode at the fundamental harmonic by the second harmonic oscillations. Our study includes both the analytical theory and numerical simulations performed with the self-consistent code MAGY. The simulations show that stable second harmonic operation in the TE31,8 mode is possible with only modest sacrifice of efficiency and power.

Theoretical Study on a 0.4-THz Second Harmonic Gyrotron

In this paper, the results of theoretical study on a 0.4-THz second harmonic gyrotron operating at TE19.3 are presented. A gradually tapered cavity is adopted to alleviate the problem of parasitic mode competition. It is proved that the amplitudes of spurious modes in the gradually tapered cavity could be kept lower than that in the line-joint cavity, especially that in the line-joint cavity with large angle. Based on the self-consistent nonlinear theory, a code is written to simulate the process of beam–wave interaction. Through optimizing the operating parameters, the beam–wave interaction efficiency can reach 35% and an output power of 100 kW can be obtained. In addition, the mode competition in the designed gyrotron is studied using multifrequency time-dependent nonlinear theory. Simulations tracking five competition modes show that stable excitation of the desired operating mode TE19.3 at 100 kW level can be realized with proper choice of operating parameters.

Harmonic gyrotrons operating in high-order symmetric modes

It is shown that gyrotrons operating at cyclotron harmonics can be designed for operation in symmetric TE0,p-modes. Such operation in fundamental harmonic gyrotrons is possible only at small radial indices (p≤3) because of the severe mode competition with TE2,p-modes, which are equally coupled to annular beams as the symmetric modes. At cyclotron harmonics, however, this “degeneracy” of coupling is absent, and there is a region in the parameter space where harmonic gyrotrons can steadily operate in symmetric modes. This fact is especially important for sub-THz and THz-range gyrotrons where ohmic losses limit the power achievable in continuous-wave and high duty cycle regimes.

G-band harmonic multiplying gyrotron traveling-wave amplifier with a mode-selective circuit

Harmonic multiplying gyrotron traveling-wave amplifiers (gyro-TWAs) permit for magnetic field reduction and frequency multiplication. A high-order-mode harmonic multiplying gyro-TWA with large circuit dimensions and low ohmic loss can achieve a high average power. By amplifying a fundamental harmonic TE01 drive wave, the second harmonic component of the beam current initiates a TE02 wave to be amplified. Wall losses can suppress some competing modes because they act as an effective sink of the energy of the modes. However, such wall losses do not suppress all competing modes as the fields are contracted in the copper section in the gyro-TWA. An improved mode-selective circuit, using circular waveguides with the specified radii, can provide the rejection points within the frequency range to suppress the competing modes. The simulated results reveal that the mode-selective circuit can provide an attenuation of more than 10 dB to suppress the competing modes (TE21, TE51, TE22, and TE03). A G-band second harmonic multiplying gyro-TWA with the mode-selective circuit is predicted to yield a peak output power of 50 kW at 198.8 GHz, corresponding to a saturated gain of 55 dB at an interaction efficiency of 10%. The full width at half maximum bandwidth is 5 GHz.

Copper Solenoid Design for the Continuous Operation of a Second Harmonic 95-GHz Gyrotron

Copper Solenoid Design for the Continuous Operation of a Second Harmonic 95-GHz Gyrotron

Experiment and Simulation of a W-Band CW 30 kW Low-Voltage Conventional Gyrotron

In this paper, a continuous wave (CW) low-voltage fundamental harmonic W-band gyrotron has been designed and simulated with the help of a particle-in-cell (PIC) software CHIPIC. The output power of 33.4 kW with an electron efficiency 37.1% in the PIC simulation is obtained by the designed conventional gyrotron employing a 30-kV, 3-A electron beam which is produced by a triode magnetron injection gun. In addition, a high-power capacity collector being one of the key components of CW gyrotrons has been evaluated and tested. The peak power density on the collector wall using the spreading electron system is about 390 W/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> in the hot test. The CW output power of 15.8 kW is achieved with the condition of a 29-kV, 1.8-A electron beam in the hot-test experiment of the designed prototype.

A W-band Third Harmonic Gyrotron with an Iris Cavity

The design and experimental results of a W-band gyrotron operating at the third cyclotron harmonic are presented. The gyrotron is designed to operate at the TE61 mode, which is significantly distinct from competing modes. An iris cavity is employed for the purpose of trapping the third harmonic mode more effectively and lowering its start current. In the experiment, the gyrotron is drived by a triode magnetron injection gun (MIG) which can produce a 45 kV, 3 A electron beam. When maximum axial magnetic field is 1.22 T, a single mode third harmonic gyrotron radiation is observed with the frequency of 94.86 GHz. The maximum output power is 5.5 kW, corresponding to an efficiency of 4%. Another third harmonic mode TE02 is also detected at 88.8 GHz, with maximum output power of 1.5 kW.

Analysis of a 0.6-THz Second Harmonic Gyrotron With Gradually Tapered Cavity

The mode competition and beam wave interaction in a gradually tapered cavity are studied for achieving high efficiency of a 0.6-THz second harmonic (SH) gyrotron. In order to obtain high power and stable radiation, the TE32,5 mode is selected as the operating mode of the desired gyrotron to realize a single-mode oscillation. The issues of studying the high-order mode gyrotron are solved effectively by transforming the generalized telegraphist's equations. The efficiency and the output power of the gyrotron under different conditions have been calculated by the code, which is based on the transformed equations. The results show that a single-mode SH radiation with a power of over 100 kW at frequency of 0.6 THz could be achieved.

Development of second harmonic gyrotrons, Gyrotron FU CW GII and Gyrotron FU CW GIII, equipped with internal mode converters

Second harmonic gyrotrons, Gyrotron FU CW GII and Gyrotron FU CW GIII, were developed at the Research Center for Development of Far-Infrared Region, University of Fukui, Japan to achieve two goals. Each gyrotron was equipped with an internal quasi-optical mode converter. Using Gyrotron FU CW GII allowed the design of the cavity and mode converter to be validated, which was the first goal. After that, Gyrotron FU CW GIII, which is an improved version of Gyrotron FU CW GII, allowed us to achieve a high power output of up to 420 W, which was the second goal, with a cathode voltage setting of −21 kV and a beam current of 0.57 A. This was achieved using a newly developed electron gun and with the careful sitting of the gyrotron on the magnet.

Study on 220 GHz third harmonic photonic band gap cavity gyrotron oscillator

A design of 220 GHz third harmonic photonic band gap cavity gyrotron oscillator is proposed. Higher photonic crystal band gap is used to ensure the interaction between the high order electromagnetic mode (TE63-like) and the third harmonic electron cyclotron mode in gyrotron. The weak mode competition between TE63-like and TE92-like mode is studied by using a nonlinear theory, and the working conditions that ensure the start-up of the gyrotron to work in the third harmonic mode, as well as the nonlinear characteristics during the start-up process, are achieved. These results are in good agreement with the PIC (particle-in-cell) simulation. Our study shows that by using the photonic crystal as the high-frequency structure of gyrotron, high-order electromagnetic modes can interact with harmonic electron cyclotron modes efficiently.

Numerical study on a 0.4 THz second harmonic gyrotron with high power

Terahertz and sub-terahertz science and technology are promising topics today. However, it is difficult to obtain high power source of terahertz wave. In this paper, the mode competition and beam-wave interaction in a gradually tapered cavity are studied to achieve high efficiency of a 0.4THz second harmonic gyrotron in practice. In order to attain high power and stable radiation, the TE32,5 mode is selected as the operating mode of the desired gyrotron to realize single mode oscillation. The issues of studying on the high-order mode gyrotrons are solved effectively by transforming the generalized telegraphist's equations. The efficiency and output power of the gyrotron under different conditions have been calculated by the code, which is based on the transformed equations. Consequently, the results show that single mode second harmonic radiation with power of over 150 kW at frequency of 0.4 THz could be achieved.

Low-voltage gyrotrons

For a long time, the gyrotrons were primarily developed for electron cyclotron heating and current drive of plasmas in controlled fusion reactors where a multi-megawatt, quasi-continuous millimeter-wave power is required. In addition to this important application, there are other applications (and their number increases with time) which do not require a very high power level, but such issues as the ability to operate at low voltages and have compact devices are very important. For example, gyrotrons are of interest for a dynamic nuclear polarization, which improves the sensitivity of the nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. In this paper, some issues important for operation of gyrotrons driven by low-voltage electron beams are analyzed. An emphasis is made on the efficiency of low-voltage gyrotron operation at the fundamental and higher cyclotron harmonics. These efficiencies calculated with the account for ohmic losses were, first, determined in the framework of the generalized gyrotron theory based on the cold-cavity approximation. Then, more accurate, self-consistent calculations for the fundamental and second harmonic low-voltage sub-THz gyrotron designs were carried out. Results of these calculations are presented and discussed. It is shown that operation of the fundamental and second harmonic gyrotrons with noticeable efficiencies is possible even at voltages as low as 5–10 kV. Even the third harmonic gyrotrons can operate at voltages about 15 kV, albeit with rather low efficiency (1%–2% in the submillimeter wavelength region).

W波段三次谐波回旋管实验研究

W波段三次谐波回旋管实验研究

A W band second harmonic gyrotron oscillator

针对谐波回旋管互作用效率低的问题, 以自洽非线性理论为基本工具, 系统地分析了三个关键因素, 即互作用腔体长度(Q值)、电子注的横纵速度比和工作电压对二次谐波互作用系统性能的影响.研究发现当工作磁场选择在硬激发区时, 通过综合调节电子注的横纵速度比和工作电压能够获得较高的互作用效率.基于自洽非线性理论优化设计了一个W波段二次谐波回旋振荡器, 粒子模拟(PIC)结果显示当电子注速度离散３％, 工作电压37 kV, 电流4 A时, 输出效率达到了39.5%.;To solve the problem of low interaction efficiency of harmonic gyrotrons, self-consistent theory was used to investigate the dependence of the interaction efficiency on three critical factors; cavity length (quality factor), electronic beam’s velocity ratio and operating voltage. It was found that high efficiency can be achieved by adjusting beam voltage and velocity ratio when the working magnetic field was located at the hard excitation region. Based on the self-consistent nonlinear theory, a W band second harmonic gyrotron oscillator was optimized. Particle in cell computation showed that the efficiency was up to 39.5% when the beam voltage and current was 37kV and 4A, respectively, with velocity spread of 3%.

Development of a Magnetic Cusp Gun for Terahertz Harmonic Gyrodevices

A magnetic cusp gun (MCG) is being developed to generate an axis-encircling electron beam, which is called the large orbit beam, which is going to drive a 0.396-THz fourth-harmonic gyrotron. Developing an MCG imposes crucial challenges on a simultaneously minimizing guiding center deviation and velocity spread of the electron beam, particularly because an ultrahigh magnetic compression ratio is unavoidable, as is the case for a terahertz (THz) gyrotron. The study of the electron dynamics in the MCG reveals that, close to the emitter, a pair of focusing electrodes are employed to construct a special focusing and accelerating electric field as a way to balance the space-charge influence and guiding center deviation. Investigation indicates that both the electron-beam generalized-angular-momentum spread and the guiding center distribution are the critical factors contributing to beam parameter spread. Intensive optimization generates a high-power MCG with a pitch factor of 1.5, the highest magnetic field of 4 T, minimum transverse velocity spread of 1.1%, and a beam current of 2 A. The key parameters exhibit excellent stability tuning over a wide range of beam current and magnetic field. These merits enable the harmonic gyrotrons or even the frequency-tunable THz gyrotrons to be developed.

Stability Analysis of a Second Harmonic Coaxial-Waveguide Gyrotron Backward-Wave Oscillator

This study analyzes the stability of a Ka-band second harmonic gyrotron backward-wave oscillator (gyro-BWO) with a coaxial interaction waveguide. All of the possible competing modes in the frequency tuning range are considered. To suppress various competing modes, the downstream part of the coaxial interaction waveguide is loaded with distributed losses. Although the competing modes have different kinds of transverse field distributions, simulation results show that the losses of the outer cylinder and those of the inner cylinder serve as complementary means of suppressing the competing modes. The losses can stabilize the competing modes while having minor effects on the start-oscillation current of the operating mode. Detailed investigations were performed involving the dependence of the start-oscillation currents on the parameters of the lossy inner cylinder and the lossy outer cylinder, including the resistivity and the length of the lossy section. Moreover, under stable operating conditions, the performances of the second harmonic coaxial gyro-BWO with different sets of circuit parameters are predicted and compared.

Low-order-mode harmonic multiplying gyrotron traveling-wave amplifier in W band

Harmonic multiplying gyrotron traveling-wave amplifiers (gyro-TWAs) allow for magnetic field reduction and frequency multiplication. To avoid absolute instabilities, this work proposes a W-band harmonic multiplying gyro-TWA operating at low-order modes. By amplifying a fundamental harmonic TE11 drive wave, the second harmonic component of the beam current initiates a TE21 wave to be amplified. Absolute instabilities in the gyro-TWA are suppressed by shortening the interaction circuit and increasing wall losses. Simulation results reveal that compared with Ka-band gyro-TWTs, the lower wall losses effectively suppress absolute instabilities in the W-band gyro-TWA. However, a global reflective oscillation occurs as the wall losses decrease. Increasing the length or resistivity of the lossy section can reduce the feedback of the oscillation to stabilize the amplifier. The W-band harmonic multiplying gyro-TWA is predicted to yield a peak output power of 111 kW at 98 GHz with an efficiency of 25%, a saturated gain of 26 dB, and a bandwidth of 1.6 GHz for a 60 kV, 7.5 A electron beam with an axial velocity spread of 8%.