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To produce high-power coherent electromagnetic radiation at frequencies from microwaves up to terahertz, the radiation sources should have interaction circuits of large cross sections, i.e., the sources should operate in high-order modes. In such devices, the excitation of higher-order parasitic modes near cutoff where the group velocity is small and, hence, start currents are low can be a serious problem. The problem is especially severe in the sources of coherent, phase-controlled radiation, i.e., the amplifiers or phase-locked oscillators. This problem was studied earlier [Nusinovich, Sinitsyn, and Antonsen, Phys. Rev. E 82, 046404 (2010)] for the case of electron focusing by strong guiding magnetic fields. For many applications it is desirable to minimize these focusing fields. Therefore in this paper we analyze the problem of excitation of parasitic modes near cutoff in forward-wave amplifiers with weak focusing fields. First, we study the large-signal operation of such a device with a signal wave only. Then, we analyze the self-excitation conditions of parasitic waves near cutoff in the presence of the signal wave. It is shown that the main effect is the suppression of the parasitic wave in large-signal regimes. At the same time, there is a region of device parameters where the presence of signal waves can enhance excitation of parasitic modes. The role of focusing fields in such effects is studied.

In this paper, excitation of parasitic waves near cutoff in forward-wave amplifiers is studied in a rather general form. This problem is important for developing high-power sources of coherent, phase controlled short-wavelength electromagnetic radiation because just the waves which can be excited near cutoff have low group velocities. Since the wave coupling to an electron beam is inversely proportional to the group velocity, these waves are the most dangerous parasitic waves preventing stable amplification of desired signal waves. Two effects are analyzed in the paper. The first one is the effect of signal wave parameters on the self-excitation conditions of such parasitic waves. The second effect is the role of the beam geometry on excitation of these parasitic waves in forward-wave amplifiers with spatially extended interaction space, such as sheet-beam devices. It is shown that a large-amplitude signal wave can greatly influence the self-excitation conditions of the parasitic waves which define stability of operation. Therefore the effect described is important for accurate designing of high-power amplifiers of electromagnetic waves.

The operation of a gyrotron having a cylindrical resonator with an azimuthally corrugated wall is analyzed. In such a device, wall corrugation cancels the degeneracy of the modes with azimuthally standing patterns. The coupling between these modes depends on the radius of electron beam. It is shown that such a gyrotron can be easily switched from one mode to another. When the switching is done with the repetition frequency equal to the rotational frequency of magnetic islands, this sort of operation can be used for suppression of neoclassical tearing modes in large-scale tokamaks and stellarators.

In gyro-traveling-wave devices, several waves can be excited at different cyclotron harmonics simultaneously. This paper analyzes the interaction between three waves synchronous with gyrating electrons at different cyclotron harmonics in two relativistic gyro-amplifier configurations; viz., gyro-traveling-wave tubes and gyrotwystrons. Two types of nonlinear interactions are considered: (a) excitation of two waves at cyclotron harmonics by a wave excited at the fundamental resonance, and (b) excitation of a wave at the fundamental resonance and another wave at the third harmonic by a wave excited at the second cyclotron harmonic. The effect of the overlapping of electron cyclotron resonances on the performance of relativistic gyrodevices is investigated as well.

Megawatt class gyrotrons operate in very high-order modes. Therefore, control of a gyrotron oscillator's start-up is important for excitation of the desired mode in the presence of the many undesired modes. Analysis of such scenario using the self-consistent code MAGY [M. Botton, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 26, 882 (1998)10.1109/27.700860] reveals that during start-up not only mode amplitudes vary in time, but also their axial structure can be time dependent. Simulations done for a 1.5 MW gyrotron show that the excitation of a single operating mode can exhibit a sort of intermittency when, first, it is excited as a mode whose axial structure extends outside the interaction cavity, then it ceases and then reappears as a mode mostly localized in the cavity. This phenomenon makes it necessary to analyze start-up scenarios in such gyrotrons with the use of codes that account for the possible evolution of field profiles.

Plasma-assisted slow-wave oscillators (pasotrons) operate without external magnetic fields, which makes these devices quite compact and lightweight. Beam focusing in pasotrons is provided by ions, which appear in the device due to the impact ionization of a neutral gas by beam electrons. Typically, the ionization time is on the order of the rise time of the beam current. This means that, during the rise of the current, beam focusing by ions becomes stronger. Correspondingly, a beam of electrons, which was initially diverging radially due to the self-electric field, starts to be focused by ions, and this focus moves towards the gun as the ion density increases. This feature makes the self-excitation of electromagnetic (em) oscillations in pasotrons quite different from practically all other microwave sources where em oscillations are excited by a stationary electron beam. The process of self-excitation of em oscillations has been studied both theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that in pasotrons, during the beam current rise the amount of current entering the interaction space and the beam coupling to the em field vary. As a result, the self-excitation can proceed faster than in conventional microwave sources with similar operating parameters such as the operating frequency, cavity quality-factor and the beam current and voltage.

When an electromagnetic (EM) wave has a large amplitude and electrons have a large energy, the electron cyclotron frequency in the process of interaction with an EM wave can vary significantly. This can lead to overlapping of cyclotron resonances at different harmonics. It is shown that such an overlapping causes the stochasticity of electron orbits. Estimates show that this effect can be present in relativistic gyrodevices currently under development for driving future accelerators.

This paper is devoted to the analysis of nonstationary self-consistent processes in electron beam propagation in the presence of mobile ions. This problem is of particular interest for the recently developed plasma-assisted slow-wave oscillators (pasotrons). In pasotrons beam focusing is provided by ions (in contrast to other high-power microwave sources where the beam is focused by a strong external magnetic field). Typically, pasotrons operate in rather long pulses with a pulse duration on the order of 100 micros and larger. In such a time scale, the ion motion can play a significant role, and therefore, the self-consistent nonstationary processes in the beam transport and ion motion become important. In particular, the interaction with beam electrons may result in ion axial acceleration. In the present paper, a theory that describes these nonstationary self-consistent processes is developed, taking account of the phase mixing of electrons having a spread in their initial transverse velocities. The paper also contains some simulation results obtained for typical pasotron parameters.

Recently, it was found that a gyro-backward-wave oscillator (gyro-BWO) with a tapered waveguide can exhibit stationary oscillations at currents which exceed the starting current by more than 2 orders of magnitude. This result, at first glance, contradicts the theory of transients in untapered linear-beam BWO's, which predicts nonstationary oscillations at currents exceeding the start current by a factor of 3. To explain this behavior of the tapered gyro-BWO, its nonstationary theory is developed. The results obtained demonstrate the consistency of the tapered gyro-BWO operation with the known theory of transients and also show that the tapering may provide stationary oscillations at high currents.

Recent development of plasma-assisted slow-wave oscillators [Goebel et al. IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 22, 547 (1994)], microwave sources that operate without guiding magnetic fields, has stimulated interest in the theoretical analysis of such tubes. In principle, in the absence of guiding magnetic fields, due to the space charge forces and the radial electric field of the wave, the electrons may propagate radially outward which increases electron coupling to the slow wave whose field is localized near the slow-wave structure (SWS). This increases the wave growth rate and efficiency, and hence allows one to shorten the interaction region. So the radial electron motion can be beneficial for operation if it does not lead to interception of electrons by the SWS. To avoid this interception a weak external magnetic field can be applied. The theory developed describes the effect of weak magnetic fields on the operation of traveling-wave tubes and backward-wave oscillators with electrons moving not only axially but also transversely. This theory allows one to estimate the magnetic field required for protecting the SWS from electron bombardment at different power levels. Theoretical predictions of the efficiency enhancement due to the weak magnetic field are confirmed in experiments.

In conventional sources of coherent Cherenkov electromagnetic radiation, the electrons move linearly, guided by external magnetic fields. In the absence of such fields, the electrons can move radially, being affected by the beam self-fields as well as by the radial component of the electric field of the wave. This radial motion can, first, improve the coupling of electrons to the field of a slow wave localized near the wall of a slow-wave structure, and second, cause an energy exchange between the electrons and the wave due to an additional transverse interaction. This interaction, in particular, can lead to an experimentally observed excitation of nonsymmetric transverse electric waves in Cherenkov devices. In plasma-filled sources, the beam self-fields can be compensated for by ions, leading to a known ion focusing of the beams. In such regimes, the beam can be surrounded by an ion layer creating a potential well for electrons which can be displaced from stationary trajectories by transverse fields of the wave. The operation of such sources when the presence of ions and the radial electric field of the wave play competing focusing and defocusing roles, and electron interception by the walls restricts the output power level, is analyzed in stationary and nonstationary regimes.

A small-signal theory describing multistage gyro-traveling-wave tubes (gyro-TWTs) is developed. Multistage configurations of gyro-TWTs as well as conventional TWTs seem to be attractive because of their principal ability to operate stably with a high gain, since the stability can be provided by a shortening of each stage while the gain increases with the number of stages. Two regimes of operation, far from cutoff and near cutoff, are considered. In the former case, the equations can be reduced to those describing conventional TWTs and free electron laser amplifiers. Thus a part of the results obtained is also valid for these devices. For two-stage configurations (two waveguides separated by a drift region) the effect of the difference in waveguide cutoff frequencies on the gain and bandwidth is studied. This effect has a common nature with stagger-tuning of cavities, which is widely used in conventional klystrons and gyroklystrons for bandwidth enlargement. The trade-off in gain and bandwidth of such "stagger-tuned," two-stage gyro-TWTs and TWTs is analyzed. Also, the theory of two-stage gyro-TWTs with tapered waveguides and external magnetic field is discussed.