The gyrotron traveling-wave tube (gyro-TWT) amplifier is known to be highly susceptible to spurious oscillations. This study develops a simulation approach to analyze the stability of a coaxial-waveguide gyro-TWT with distributed wall losses. The interplay among the absolute instabilities, the gyrotron backward-wave oscillations, and the circuit parameters is analyzed. Simulation results reveal that the distributed wall losses effectively stabilize spurious oscillations in the coaxial gyro-TWT. Furthermore, the wall resistivity of the center conductor is shown to be an additional effective mechanism for suppressing oscillations. Under stable operation conditions, the coaxial gyro-TWT with distributed losses is predicted to generate 435kW in the Ka band with 31% efficiency, a saturated gain of 45dB, and a bandwidth of 1.86GHz (≈5.8%) for a 70kV, 20A electron beam with an α(=ν⊥∕νz)=1.0 and an axial velocity spread of Δνz∕νz=5%.

Stability analysis of a coaxial-waveguide gyrotron traveling-wave amplifier

Linear theory provides an efficient analysis model for the preliminary design of a gyrotron traveling-wave tube (gyro-TWT). This study presents a linear theory, which is applicable to amplifications or self-excited oscillations induced by absolute instabilities in a coaxial waveguide of finite length. The effects of wall losses are incorporated in the theoretical formalism. The validity of the linear theory is verified by comparison with calculation results obtained using an existing self-consistent nonlinear theory. The linear theory is applied to analyze a TE01 mode coaxial gyro-TWT at the fundamental cyclotron harmonic. Numerical analysis of coupling between the beam cyclotron mode and the waveguide mode provides physical insight into the wave-growing mechanisms of various oscillations. The critical parameters for the onset of threatening oscillation modes are analyzed to determine the stable operating conditions. Finally, the dependencies of small-signal amplifications on system parameters are studied...

Linear analysis of a coaxial-waveguide gyrotron traveling-wave tube

An over-mode metal rectangular waveguide is widely used in the generation, propagation, coupling, and transition of microwaves. When applied as the beam-wave interaction circuit of some high power microwave devices, a rectangular waveguide is expected to operate at a single electromagnetic mode. To do that, unwanted modes resulted from spurious oscillations should be suppressed. In this paper, a method of selective suppression of electromagnetic modes in rectangular waveguides by loading distributed losses in some special position of waveguide inner wall is presented. By using the method, the unwanted modes can be attenuated much larger relative to the operating mode. The presented method can be used to improve the stability of rectangular waveguide beam-wave interaction circuit.

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Selective Suppression of Electromagnetic Modes in a Rectangular Waveguide by Using Distributed Wall Losses

This theoretical investigation examines the feasibility of improving the stability of the coaxial-waveguide gyrotron traveling-wave tube (gyro-TWT) by selecting the geometrical parameter C, i.e., the ratio of the outer radius to the inner radius. The effects of the geometrical parameter C on the start-oscillation currents of oscillation modes are analyzed to determine the optimum operating conditions. Simulation results indicate that the coaxial gyro-TWT with distributed wall losses can be stably operated at a higher beam current by optimizing C. Additionally, the saturated behaviors of the operating TE01 mode are evaluated for several C values to investigate the geometrical effects on the amplification of the coaxial gyro-TWT. Moreover, performance of the fundamental harmonic coaxial gyro-TWT achieved with the optimized C value is predicted under stable operating conditions.

Geometrical Effects on the Performance of Coaxial-Waveguide Gyrotron Traveling-Wave Amplifiers

Harmonic multiplying operation in a gyrotron traveling-wave amplifier (gyro-TWA) permits for magnetic field reduction and frequency multiplication. Lowering a beam voltage is an important step toward miniaturization of a harmonic multiplying gyro-TWA. However, the additional degree of freedom that is provided by the multitude cyclotron harmonics in a low-voltage harmonic multiplying gyro-TWA still easily generates various competing modes. An improved mode-selective circuit, using circular waveguides with various radii, can provide the rejection points within the frequency range to suppress competing modes. Simulated results reveal that the mode-selective circuit can provide an attenuation of more than 14 dB to suppress the competing modes. Furthermore, the performance of the gyro-TWA is analyzed for studying the sensitivity of the saturated output power and full width at half maximum bandwidth of the gyro-TWA to the beam voltage and the magnetic field. A stable low-voltage harmonic multiplying gyro-TWA with the mode-selective circuit is predicted to yield a peak output power of 24 kW at 200.4 GHz, corresponding to a saturated gain of 56 dB at an interaction efficiency of 20%. The full width at half maximum bandwidth is 3.0 GHz.

Low-voltage harmonic multiplying gyrotron traveling-wave amplifier in G band

Overmoded coaxial waveguides have been used in coaxial gyrotrons as a key interaction structure. To achieve the required mode selectivity, the resistivity of the center conductor is properly chosen to damp unwanted modes. Considering attenuation due to conductor loss, this study employs the perturbational method to determine the propagation constants of higher-order modes in the coaxial waveguide. The validity of the theoretical model is confirmed by comparison with results obtained using the high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS). Moreover, the method proposed herein is applied to analyze the ohmic mode selection of the coaxial waveguide.

Chien-Lun Hung

Papers

The Propagation Constants of Higher-Order Modes in Coaxial Waveguides With Finite Conductivity