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To achieve compactness and miniaturization for high-power microwave devices, this paper proposes an X-band permanent magnet-packaged coaxial relativistic klystron oscillator (RKO) with a novel diode structure featuring a stair-step cathode. First, by adopting a large-radius anode structure, the emission of beam currents from the side of the cathode surface is diminished, thereby reducing the proportion of the backward current in the beam current from 10% to 7%. Second, a stair-step cathode is used to inhibit the return flow of electron beams from striking the anode and generating plasma. Concurrently, a radially non-uniform coaxial resonant cavity structure is employed to enhance the fundamental wave modulation depth of the electron beam and improve the beam–wave interaction's efficiency. The experimental results show that the novel device outputs a microwave with a frequency of 9.46 GHz and a pulse width of 55 ns. It generates a power output of 1.5 GW with an efficiency of approximately 30.5%, in the case in which the diode voltage is 505 kV, the beam current is 9.7 kA, and the guiding magnetic flux density is 0.4 T. This novel structure surpasses traditional diode configurations by enhancing the beam-to-wave conversion efficiency by roughly 10%, thereby offering substantial support for the compactness and miniaturization of RKO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compact is a significant research direction of low-frequency high-power microwave devices. In this paper, a compact S-band relativistic backward wave oscillator is presented. The radial dimension of the device is reduced by utilizing the characteristic that the cutoff frequency of the fundamental mode (quasi-TEM mode) of the coaxial Slow-Wave Structure (SWS) is zero. Moreover, a coaxial extraction structure is designed to enhance its resonance characteristics to reduce the number of slow-wave structures. In addition, a reflective structure with the phase difference between inner and outer conductors is used, which replaces the pre-reflection cavity and shortens the axial size of the device. A relativistic backward oscillator with a 2.5-period coaxial slow-wave structure is proposed through theoretical analysis, simulation calculation, and experiment. Its radial dimension is 160 mm (∼1.28λ), and its axial dimension is 320 mm (∼2.56λ). In the experiment, the results show that the output microwave has a center frequency of 2.41 GHz, a power of 1.5 GW, a pulse width of 92 ns, and continuous operation for 20 s at a repetition of 10 Hz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the scaling invariance, the over-mode ratio of the coaxial resonator can be increased to increase the power handling capability. However, as the over-mode ratio increases, the characteristic impedance and external quality factor decrease, which causes the modulation of the electron beam to be weakened. Moreover, when the output microwave power increases, the double-gap output cavity will suffer from severe radio frequency breakdown. Therefore, an X-band high-power and high-efficiency coaxial relativistic klystron oscillator with a four-gap modulation cavity and a three-gap extraction cavity is proposed. First, a four-gap modulation cavity can increase the modulation depth of the electron beam to improve the beam-wave conversion efficiency. The operating mode of the modulation cavity is the 3π/4 mode of the coaxial TM01 mode. Second, a three-gap extraction cavity is adopted to enhance the microwave extraction energy and reduce the RF field strength. The simulation results show that when the diode voltage is 650 kV, the beam current is 15.4 kA, and the guiding magnetic field is 0.48 T, the device outputs a microwave power of 4.2 GW, a frequency of 8.4 GHz, and an efficiency of 42%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy consumption of high-power microwave sources has attracted much attention in the research field of high-power microwaves. One way of decreasing the energy consumption is to reduce the guiding magnetic field. In this work, a high-efficiency transit-time oscillator is proposed with a low guiding magnetic field. In order to enhance the modulation depth of electrons and increase the conversion efficiency under a low guiding magnetic field, two bunchers are adopted to modulate the electron beam. 2.5D simulation results show that the proposed device generates microwaves with a power of 3.6 GW and a frequency of 4.31 GHz. The power conversion efficiency is 40% and the modulation depth is 125% when the guiding magnetic field is only 0.5 T. In addition, a 3D simulation verifies the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High efficiency and high frequency are key research topics for the development of high power microwave devices. There are, however, serious issues with mode competition in relativistic Cerenkov devices based on a single electron beam, which can lead to low efficiency in the beam-wave interaction process. In this paper, a high-efficiency relativistic Cerenkov oscillator based on a dual electron beam is proposed. The hollow slow wave structure is embedded in the inner conductor of the coaxial waveguide to obtain a double coaxial electromagnetic structure, which can suppress mode competition and improve the beam-wave interaction efficiency of the dual-band radiation. Moreover, each band of radiation is independent of the other, such that high frequency output radiation is generated. Using the particle-in-cell method, the physical processes involving the beam-wave interaction in the oscillator are studied with the aim of designing a high-efficiency double-electromagnetic structure. Simulation results indicated that the output power levels for the X-band and Ka-band were 1.50 GW and 710 MW, respectively, and the efficiencies were 34.7% and 30.7%, respectively, for a diode voltage of 550 kV and a guiding magnetic field of 0.85 T. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The physical mechanism, simulation results, and main experimental results of an S-band long-pulse relativistic backward-wave oscillator (RBWO) with a coaxial extractor are presented. The central ideas of the device include: 1) dual resonant cavities replacing the cutoff neck are used to enhance the efficiency and to decrease the electric field; 2) nonuniform slow-wave structures (SWSs) are introduced in the device to improve the efficiency; 3) a coaxial extractor is well designed, which is beneficial to the extraction of generated microwaves; and 4) the diode and the collector are reasonably designed to reduce the influence of cathode and collector plasmas. In simulation, microwaves centered at 3.77 GHz are generated, with the power of 3.3 GW and efficiency of 43%. However, the pulse duration of the device does not exceed 70 ns owing to the pulse-shortening phenomenon in the initial experiment. It was found that the plasma caused by an intense radio frequency electric field on the surface of the coaxial extractor played a main role in pulse shortening. To suppress the pulse shortening, we focus on two aspects. One was to optimize the electrodynamic structures to reduce the electric field on the surfaces of the coaxial extractor while maintaining relatively high efficiency. The other was to improve the surface roughness of SWSs thereby increasing the breakdown threshold of the RF field. In the experiment after these measures were taken, microwaves centered at 3.752 GHz are generated, with the power of 2.3 GW, efficiency of 35%, repetition rate of 20 Hz, and pulse duration above 110 ns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]