Search

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]

In recent years, high-power microwave (HPM) generator with a low working magnetic field has caught more attention as this device has the merit of low energy consumption and the potential of using a permanent magnet package in the HPM system. However, the conversion efficiency of this device is generally low because the electron beam will fluctuate transversely and the modulation depth will decline when the guiding magnetic field is low. To obtain concurrently high-power, high-efficiency, and low operating magnetic field, a transit-time oscillator (TTO) with two bunchers is designed and fabricated. Two bunchers are adopted in the TTO to modulate the electron beam twice. By introducing the second buncher, the modulation depth of the electron beam increases by 23%, and the conversion efficiency increases from 25% to 40.5% in simulations. A microwave with a power of 3.65 GW and a frequency of 4.31 GHz is obtained with a 600-kV, 15-kA electron beam under the guidance of a 0.5-T magnetic field in simulations. Furthermore, the corresponding experiments are carried out to verify the two-buncher TTO, and a microwave with a power of 3.3 GW and a frequency of 4.31 GHz is obtained. The experimental efficiency is 32% with an external magnetic field of 0.48 T. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequency hopping is one of the most significant technological advancements in high power microwave (HPM) sources. Mechanical alteration is generally adopted in traditional cross-band microwave generation, but it has the detriments of a complex adjustment strategy. In this paper, a cross-band frequency hopping Cerenkov microwave generator with an advantageous adjustment strategy, high beam–wave interaction efficiency, and pure output mode is developed. Two-segment slow wave structures (SWSs), which work in C and X-bands separately, are adopted. Additionally, by utilizing the cyclotron resonance absorption phenomenon reasonably, only the relative band microwave is energized under different magnetic fields, which adequately represses mode competition and realizes cross-band frequency hopping. After the electron beam passes through the first SWS section, the bunching center is consistently at the acceleration or deceleration phase of the subsequent SWS section, which a guarantees high beam–wave interaction efficiency in the two bands. The preliminary results of the particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation are as follows: when the guiding magnetic field is 0.7 T, the microwave output comprising only the X-band is obtained, with an efficiency of 42%; when the guiding magnetic field is 1.5 T, the microwave output comprising only the C-band is obtained, with an efficiency of 30%. [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 mechanism and realization of a cross-band relativistic Cherenkov oscillator based on the cathode adjustment are presented. The device adopts coaxial dual-annular cathode to emit the inner and the outer electron beams, independently. When the inner annular cathode is extended and the outer annular cathode is retracted, the electron beams are emitted from the inner cathode and interact with the internal electromagnetic structure to generate Ka-band microwaves. On the contrary, the outer electron beams interact with the external electromagnetic structure to generate X-band microwaves. Thus, the cross-band microwave generation can be achieved only by adjusting the protrusion and retraction of dual-annular cathode. By the particle-in-cell (PIC) method, the physical process of beam-wave interaction in the device is studied, and the high efficiency internal-external double electromagnetic structures are designed. Simulation results show that the X-band microwave with a power of 1.50 GW and a frequency of 8.55 GHz is generated, corresponding to an efficiency of 32%. Meanwhile, the Ka-band microwave with power of 650 MW and frequency of 31.80 GHz is generated, corresponding to efficiency of 28%. [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]

The electromagnetic characteristics of the input cavity with electron beams loaded are measured successfully in an X-band triaxial relativistic klystron amplifier (TKA) with a high frequency electrical probe. To solve the frequency response issue in the X band, a coaxial electrical probe is optimized and inserted obliquely into the input cavity at the designed angle so that the microwaves in the cavity can be sampled and extracted with the required coupling coefficient while the probe does not interfere with the solenoid coil, which is tightly integrated outside the TKA. Besides, the TKA is redesigned as a structure integrally sealed by the solenoid coil, and the secondary sealing induced by probe insertion is implemented on the flange of the solenoid coils rather than on the wall of the TKA, which is conducive to simplifying the coupling structure while maintaining the high vacuum level. The design is examined in a GW level TKA experiment, indicating that microwaves with a power of about 670 MW are generated in the input cavity at a frequency of 8.40 GHz, which is completely consistent with the injected and output microwave frequencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequency hopping technology is one of the most significant research directions for high-power microwave (HPM) devices. This paper presented a novel HPM oscillator with frequency hopping across C, X, and Ku bands based on magnetic field tuning. A coaxial transit time oscillator (TTO) is nested onto the outer conductor of the hollow relativistic Cherenkov microwave oscillator, which forms a dual electromagnetic structure with a single-annular cathode. When the electron beam is guided by gradient magnetic fields, it interacts with TTO to produce Ku-band HPMs. If the gradient magnetic field changes into the uniform magnetic field, the electron beam would enter the relativistic Cherenkov microwave oscillator, and the frequency of generated microwaves decreases, which are decided by the strength of the magnetic fields according to the cyclotron resonance absorption theory. In the particle-in-cell simulation, when the diode voltage and gradient magnetic field are 580 kV and 0.5 T, respectively, a Ku-band HPM output with a frequency of 13.9 GHz and a power of 2.09 GW is obtained, corresponding to power efficiency of 42%. When the magnetic field transforms into uniform, the device produces an X-band HPM output with a frequency of 9 GHz and a power of 2.4 GW at a diode voltage of 683 kV and a magnetic field of 0.7 T. When the voltage and magnetic field strength are increased to 699 kV and 1.5 T, respectively, the device generates a C-band HPM output with a frequency of 4.5 GHz and a power of 2.1 GW. The corresponding conversion efficiency of the X-band and C-band Cherenkov microwave oscillators is 35% and 30.7%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excitation and suppression of asymmetric modes in a coaxial relativistic klystron amplifier (RKA) with cascaded single-gap bunching cavities are analyzed in this paper. Through theoretical analysis and simulated verification, we find that the asymmetric modes of cascaded single-gap bunching cavities have low external quality factors, the same resonant frequencies, and negative beam-loading conductance ratios so that they are easily excited by the electron beam. To solve this issue, a feasible method is proposed in this paper to suppress the asymmetric modes of cascaded single-gap bunching cavities, under the conditions of decreasing their coupling coefficients and increasing the frequency separation, choosing an appropriate drift tube length between them. These improved bunching cavities are further examined in an X-band coaxial RKA by 3D particle-in-cell simulation, which shows that high power microwaves with a power of 0.8 GW are generated corresponding to an efficiency of 40%. Furthermore, there is no asymmetric mode competition during 150 ns of simulation time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The method for calculating the dispersion relations of the slow-wave structures (SWSs) with arbitrary geometrical structures is studied in detail by using the Fourier series expansion. In addition, dispersive characteristics and longitudinal resonance properties of the SWSs with the cosinusoidal, trapezoidal, and rectangular corrugations are analyzed by numerical calculation. Based on the above discussion, a comparison on an L-band coaxial relativistic backward wave oscillator (BWO) and an L-band coaxial BWO with a coaxial extractor is investigated in detail with particle-in-cell KARAT code (V. P. Tarakanov, Berkeley Research Associates, Inc., 1992). Furthermore, experiments are carried out at the TORCH-01 accelerator under the low guiding magnetic field. At diode voltage of 647 kV, beam current of 9.3 kA, and guiding magnetic field strength of 0.75 T, the microwave is generated with power of 1.07 GW, mode of TM01, and frequency of 1.61 GHz. That is the first experimental report of the L-band BWO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A compact coaxial relativistic klystron amplifier (RKA) with three cascaded bunching cavities is investigated to obtain high efficiency output in this paper. When the injection power and drift tube length are both decreased for the compactness of the initial coaxial RKA, the conversion efficiency of this device decreases to only 20%, which is mainly due to the insufficient modulation of intense relativistic electron beam (IREB). To solve this issue, three cascaded bunching cavities are designed to strengthen the modulation of IREB, and each bunching cavity is designed to a non-uniform single-gap cavity with a high external quality factor. Moreover, a specific drift tube length is chosen for minimizing the TEM mode leakage between every two adjacent cavities. With these methods, the self-oscillation between input and three cascaded bunching cavities can be successfully suppressed without loading any reflectors. The proposed three cascaded single-gap bunching cavities are further examined in a Ku-band coaxial RKA, and the output efficiency of this device increases to 44%, which is more than twice that of the initial coaxial RKA. Furthermore, the injection power and axial length of the propagating IREB in the improved coaxial RKA are reduced to only 5 kW and 10 wavelengths, respectively. [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]

An improved X-band coaxial transit time oscillator is proposed in this paper. First, the device uses a non-uniform three-gap modulation cavity to improve the clustering of electron beams under a low magnetic field and to increase the depth of the fundamental current modulation. The operating mode of the modulation cavity is the 2π/3 mode of TM01. Second, the dual-cavity extraction structure works in π mode, which can continuously and intensively extract the electron beam energy. The physical characteristics of the device are studied through simulation and experiment. The experimental results indicate that the high power microwave with a frequency of 8.38 GHz and a power of 1.78 GW is generated when the diode voltage is 520 kV and the guiding magnetic field is 0.65 T, yielding a pulse width of 27 ns and an efficiency of 32%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The initial experimental results of an L-band relativistic backward wave oscillator with a coaxial slow-wave structure are presented. The asymmetric-mode-competition mechanism in the device is investigated theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that the diode voltage, guiding-magnetic field, and concentricity play a key role in the suppression and excitation of the asymmetric-mode (coaxial quasi-TE11 mode). In the experiments, the asymmetric-mode with a frequency of 2.05 GHz is suppressed and excited, which is in good agreement with the theoretical results. [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 short saturation time have great significance on the practical work of high power microwave devices. A dual-band Cerenkov microwave generator with high-efficiency based on electrical tuning is presented in this paper. Two-segment slow wave structures for the C-band and X-band separately are adopted, which are isolated by a drift cavity. The collimating hole is replaced by a resonant reflector, which can effectively shorten the saturation time. Moreover, in order to realize dual-band microwave output, the electrical tuning method is used in this paper. In particle-in-cell simulation, when the guiding magnetic field is 0.7 T, the output microwaves at the X-band can be obtained with an efficiency of 38% and saturation time for nearly 20 ns; when the guiding magnetic field is 1.5 T, the output microwaves at the C-band can be obtained with an efficiency of 32% and saturation time for nearly 20 ns. Thus, microwaves at the X-band and C-band can be generated separately by modulating the guiding magnetic field, which can be realized just by altering the current in the magnetic coil. It should be mentioned that such a modulating method is much more convenient than mechanical modulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high efficient relativistic backward wave oscillator with coaxial nonuniform slow-wave structures (SWSs) and depth-tunable extractor is presented. The physical mechanism to increase the power efficiency is investigated theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that the nonuniform SWSs, the guiding magnetic field distribution, and the coaxial extractor depth play key roles in the enhancement of the beam-wave power conversion efficiency. The experimental results show that a 1.609 GHz, 2.3 GW microwave can be generated when the diode voltage is 890 kV and the beam current is 7.7 kA. The corresponding power efficiency reaches 33.6%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An L-band high-power relativistic backward wave oscillator is designed. In the simulation, microwaves centered at 1.6 GHz are generated, with the power of 3.6 GW and the efficiency of 40%. In the preliminary experiment, the pulse duration of the device was only 45 ns, presenting a pulse-shortening phenomenon. Through the 3D particle-in-cell simulation analysis, it was found that the accelerating diode resonances significantly impact the operation of the L-band high power relativistic backward wave oscillator, and the resonance of a TE11 mode in the accelerating diode played the primary role in the pulse shortening. Moreover, we found that choosing the appropriate distance between the cathode baffle and the end of the annular cathode is beneficial to effectively suppress the starting oscillation of the parasitic TE11 mode. In the improved experiment, we changed the distance between the cathode baffle and the end of the annular cathode from previous 5.4 to 4.6 cm. Eventually, when the diode voltage is 650 kV and the diode current is 14 kA, microwaves centered at 1.58 GHz are generated with the power of 3.3 GW, the efficiency of 36%, and the pulse duration above 104 ns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During hypersonic vehicle flight at high speed, plasma sheath on the vehicle surface will attenuate or even interrupt the communication signal, leading to the "communication blackout" problem. The vehicle probably moves a long distance during the communication blackout due to its high speed, which is a serious threat to the safety of the vehicle. This paper proposes a method to solve the communication blackout problem using high-power microwave (HPM) irradiation. The multicomponent compressible model, finite difference time domain algorithm, and multi-fluid model are used to simulate the interaction between HPM and plasma sheath. The results show that after HPM irradiation, the electromagnetic (EM) wave transmissivity of the plasma sheath will change, and the electric field (E-field) amplitude and irradiation time of HPM significantly influence the change of transmissivity. Thereafter, analyses of the changes of the collision and plasma frequencies of the plasma sheath after HPM irradiation showed the transmissivity of the plasma sheath to low-frequency EM waves is improved by optimizing E-field amplitude and irradiation time of HPM. Therefore, HPM irradiation can be performed to enhance the transmissivity of the plasma sheath to the communication signal, thus alleviating the communication blackout problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-oscillation of three cascaded reflectors easily occurs in a triaxial klystron amplifier (TKA) since the TEM mode leakage cannot be cut off by a coaxial waveguide. To solve this issue, we propose a non-uniform reflector to obtain an optimal external quality factor, which indicates its minimum TEM mode leakage. The self-oscillation of three non-uniform reflectors is then suppressed by selecting a specific drift tube length between them. Moreover, different eigenfrequencies are chosen for the three improved reflectors to enhance the tolerance of the drift tube length between them. With these methods, the self-oscillation of three cascaded reflectors can be successfully eliminated, and a TKA with high output efficiency is capable of achieving a long pulse output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radial transit time oscillator (RTTO) can be relied on to generate effective coherent electromagnetic radiation in the millimeter wave domain. In this paper, the preliminary experimental research on a Ka-band RTTO is reported for the first time. In experiments, the radial electron beam emitted from the knife edge of the disk cathode is guided by the radial magnetic field. The bombardment trace on the nylon target verifies the emission and transportation uniformity of the radial e-beam. When the diode voltage is 410 kV, the beam current is 7.8 kA, and the magnetic field is 0.6 T, the RTTO can output microwaves with the power of 320 MW and the frequency of 31.35 GHz. As the diode voltage increases from 350 kV to 430 kV, the output microwave power will grow accordingly. Taking the ohmic loss into consideration, the experimental results are in agreement with the simulation ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coaxial slow wave structures have always been used to enhance the power handling capacity in the relativistic O-type Cherenkov oscillators generally. However, little attention has been paid to the regularity and the problem it may bring by using large average radius. The aim of this study was to investigate the high-frequency characteristics of coaxial slow wave structures in order to evaluate the influence of the radial dimension comprehensively. The results indicate that a large overmoded ratio can make the power handling capacity increase significantly, but as a result, it will bring some problems such as low efficiency, long starting time, and the difficulty in mode control. In addition, this paper also gives some suggestions and precautions for using large radial dimensions. The conclusion of this paper has strong applicability for the design of coaxial slow wave structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The radial transit time oscillator (RTTO) is promising to realize high power output of millimeter-waves. Although the radial structure can enhance the power capacity, less cavities and small radial dimension make it difficult to improve the power capacity in RTTOs, especially in the extraction cavity. A one-gap extraction cavity in the Ka-band RTTO is proposed in this paper to improve the power capacity. Without electrons, taking the TM011 cavity as an example, the radial reversal resonant electric field can intersect with radial electrons. By choosing the sizes of the cavity, the synchronization of the electrons and the electric field can be realized to achieve effective energy exchange. In particle-in-cell simulation, the RTTO with the TM011 extraction cavity can output 1.0 GW high power microwaves (HPMs) at 31.2 GHz, and the beam-wave conversion efficiency is 31.6%. The maximum electric field in the TM011 cavity is only 800 kV/cm, which is less than one third that in the TM010 extraction cavities. In addition, the TM012 extraction cavity is employed to improve the efficiency to 35.4%. At the same time, because of the increase in the output power, the maximum radial electric field in the TM012 cavity increases to 850 kV/cm. Therefore, the one-gap extraction cavity can realize multiple energy exchanges to get high beam-wave conversion efficiency and enhance the power capacity in the extraction cavity significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even after 50 years of development, narrowband high-power microwave (HPM) source technologies remain the focus of much research due to intense interest in innovative applications of HPMs in fields such as directed energy, space propulsion, and high-power radar. A few decades ago, the main aim of investigations in this field was to enhance the output power of a single HPM source to tens or hundreds of gigawatts, but this goal has proven difficult due to physical limitations. Therefore, recent research into HPM sources has focused on five main targets: phase locking and power combination, high power efficiency, compact sources with a low or no external magnetic field, high pulse energy, and high-power millimeter-wave generation. Progress made in these aspects of narrowband HPM sources over the last decade is analyzed and summarized in this paper. There is no single type of HPM source capable of excellent performance in all five aspects. Specifically, high pulse energy cannot be achieved together with high power efficiency. The physical difficulties of high power generation in the millimeter wave band are discussed. Semiconductor-based HPM sources and metamaterial (MTM) vacuum electron devices (VEDs) are also commented on here. Semiconductor devices have the advantage of smart frequency agility, but they have low power density and high cost. MTM VEDs have the potential to be high power efficiency HPM sources in the low frequency band. Moreover, problems relating to narrowband HPM source lifetime and stability, which are the important determinants of the real-world applicability of these sources, are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amorphous magnetic core has been widely used in pulsed power technology with applications including plasma science research, high-power microwave generation, and material surface treatment. For different applications, dynamic properties of the magnetic core will vary with stimulated magnetic field which determines by magnetization time and waveform of the driving voltage. In this paper, toroidal amorphous magnetic core ($\Phi ~540$ – $740\times25$ mm) was investigated theoretically, numerically, and experimentally. Specifically, the circuit is analyzed. A high-voltage test stand, which can generate different driving voltages with same components, was designed and developed in our laboratory. Dynamic properties, including magnetic induction change, coercive force and losses, were studied under three different typical waveforms with the same magnetic flux. Driving voltages of the pulses were 12, 12, and 6 kV and the magnetization rates were 0.6, 1.2, and 0.6 T/ $\mu \text{s}$ , respectively. Experimental results show reasonable agreement with the numerical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike planar diodes, separate research of the axial and radial plasma expansion velocities is difficult for magnetically insulated coaxial diodes. Time-resolved electrical diagnostic which is based on the voltage-ampere characteristics has been employed to study the temporal evolution of the axial and radial cathode plasma expansion velocities in a long pulsed magnetically insulated coaxial diode. Different from a planar diode with a “U” shaped profile of temporal velocity evolution, the temporal evolution trend of the axial expansion velocity is proved to be a “V” shaped profile. Apart from the suppression on the radial expansion velocity, the strong magnetic field is also conducive to slowing down the axial expansion velocity. Compared with the ordinary graphite cathode, the carbon velvet and graphite composite cathode showed superior characteristics as judged by the low plasma expansion velocity and long-term electrical stability as a promising result for applications where long-pulsed and reliable operation at high power is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]