High-gain wide-band gyrotron traveling wave amplifier with a helically corrugated waveguide

Phys Rev Lett. 2000 Mar 20;84(12):2746-9. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.2746.

Abstract

First bandwidth measurements of a novel gyrotron amplifier are presented. The coupling between the second harmonic cyclotron mode of a gyrating electron beam and the radiation field occurred in the region of near infinite phase velocity over a broad bandwidth by using a cylindrical waveguide with a helical corrugation on its internal surface. With a beam energy of 185 keV, the amplifier achieved a maximum output power of 1.1 MW, saturated gain of 37 dB, linear gain of 47 dB, saturated bandwidth of 8.4 to 10.4 GHz ( 21% relative bandwidth), and an efficiency of 29%, in good agreement with theory.