Recent research and development has been incredibly successful at advancing the capabilities for vacuum electronic device (VED) sources of powerful terahertz (THz) and near-THz coherent radiation, both CW or average and pulsed. Currently, the VED source portfolio covers over 12 orders of magnitude in power (mW-to-GW) and two orders of magnitude in frequency (from ; 10 THz). Further advances are still possible and anticipated. They will be enabled by improved understanding of fundamental beam-wave interactions, electromagnetic mode competition and mode control, along with research and development of new materials, fabrication methods, cathodes, electron beam alignment and focusing, magnet technologies, THz metrology and advanced, broadband output radiation coupling techniques.

Vacuum Electronic High Power Terahertz Sources

Homeland security and military defense technology considerations have stimulated intense interest in mobile, high power sources of millimeter-wave (mmw) to terahertz (THz) regime electromagnetic radiation, from 0.1 to 10THz. While vacuum electronic sources are a natural choice for high power, the challenges have yet to be completely met for applications including noninvasive sensing of concealed weapons and dangerous agents, high-data-rate communications, high resolution radar, next generation acceleration drivers, and analysis of fluids and condensed matter. The compact size requirements for many of these high frequency sources require miniscule, microfabricated slow wave circuits. This necessitates electron beams with tiny transverse dimensions and potentially very high current densities for adequate gain. Thus, an emerging family of microfabricated, vacuum electronic devices share many of the same plasma physics challenges that are currently confronting “classic” high power microwave (HPM) generators including long-life bright electron beam sources, intense beam transport, parasitic mode excitation, energetic electron interaction with surfaces, and rf air breakdown at output windows. The contemporary plasma physics and other related issues of compact, high power mmw-to-THz sources are compared and contrasted to those of HPM generation, and future research challenges and opportunities are discussed.

Plasma physics and related challenges of millimeter-wave-to-terahertz and high power microwave generationa)

We demonstrate the compression of 95 keV, space-charge-dominated electron bunches to sub-100 fs durations. These bunches have sufficient charge (200 fC) and are of sufficient quality to capture a diffraction pattern with a single shot, which we demonstrate by a diffraction experiment on a polycrystalline gold foil. Compression is realized by means of velocity bunching by inverting the positive space-charge-induced velocity chirp. This inversion is induced by the oscillatory longitudinal electric field of a 3 GHz radio-frequency cavity. The arrival time jitter is measured to be 80 fs.

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RF Compression of sub-relativistic space-charge-dominated electron bunches for single-shot femtosecond electron diffraction

Researchers use hyperbolic metamaterials to make an integrated Cherenkov light source and relax the electron energy requirements. Radiation covering the visible range and near-infrared is achieved with electron energies of only 0.25–1.4 keV.

Integrated Cherenkov radiation emitter eliminating the electron velocity threshold

A novel rectangular-corrugated waveguide is proposed for submillimeter and terahertz vacuum devices. Two parallel corrugations that are enclosed in a rectangular waveguide create a beam channel that supports an interaction with a cylindrical electron beam. A notable advantage of the double-corrugated rectangular waveguide slow-wave structure (SWS) is the extension of well-established cylindrical beam technology to corrugated waveguide SWSs. The structure is also fully realizable with the most recent microfabrication techniques and is easily assembled. A detailed study to describe the electromagnetic behavior of the presented SWS is performed by 3-D electromagnetic simulation. A 650-GHz backward-wave oscillator and a 227-GHz traveling-wave tube are designed and simulated, by 3-D particle-in-cell code, to highlight the great potential of the double-corrugated rectangular waveguide for submillimeter frequency vacuum devices.

Double-Corrugated Rectangular Waveguide Slow-Wave Structure for Terahertz Vacuum Devices

The authors show that evanescent tunneling transmission of effective surface plasmon polaritons between two counterstreaming electron beams noticeably increases Smith-Purcell radiation (SPR) intensity by about two orders of magnitude as well as lower its transition threshold from a spontaneous emission to a stimulated one. An emission mechanism of the superradiant SPR is theoretically analyzed by the dielectric conversion of the structured metal surface and the boundary matching condition of Maxwell’s equations in comparison with numerical simulations.

Superradiant terahertz Smith-Purcell radiation from surface plasmon excited by counterstreaming electron beams

The circuits for millimeter wave vacuum electron devices with all circuit elements including an electron beam tunnel are microfabricated by two-step deep-etch x-ray lithography (x-ray LIGA). The discrepancies of eigenfrequency between experiment and simulation are within 1.1% in a coupled-cavity structure and 1.4% in a folded waveguide structure when the operating frequency is about 100GHz. Furthermore, a measured tolerance of below 2μm, and a measured surface roughness of 20–70nm, of LIGA-fabricated circuits implies the two-step LIGA microfabrication has potential applications up to the submillimeter wave region.

Microfabrication of millimeter wave vacuum electron devices by two-step deep-etch x-ray lithography

Low-voltage operation of millimeter-wave folded waveguide traveling-wave tube (TWT) was investigated using a 12 kV linear electron beam. Backward wave oscillation operated at second space harmonic was observed with output power of 20 W, linear tunability of 6% within 0.01 dB/MHz, and voltage-frequency stability of 0.56 MHz/V. The measured frequency and output power are in a good agreement with the predicted values using a particle-in-cell (PIC) code. In addition, backward-wave interaction at second-space harmonic as an amplifier was observed with a measured linear gain of 15 dB and a bandwidth of 0.3%. For forward wave interaction, a linear gain of 25 dB, bandwidth of 17%, and efficiency of 7% were predicted for fundamental space harmonic using a PIC code. Improvement in efficiency was predicted for the forward-wave amplifier where it was operated as an oscillator employing a delayed feedback. Output power was increased by 10 dB in the delayed feedback oscillator comparing with the backward-wave oscillator. The effect of period doubling due to potential fabrication inaccuracies on the stopband was studied experimentally. The folded waveguide TWT fabricated using the Lighographie, Galvanoformung, Abformung (LIGA) process operated at much higher frequencies is discussed.

Low-voltage operation of Ka-band folded waveguide traveling-wave tube

We introduce the subwavelength transmission of an effective surface plasmon beyond the light zone via the proximity interaction of convection electrons with a metal grating. A comparative analysis of dielectric homogenization and a finite-difference--time-domain simulation shows that out-of-phase-like modes ($\ensuremath{\pi}$ modes) have strong transmission below the cutoff frequency relying on the parametric condition of structural dimension and electronic energy. The synchronous spatial field and charge distribution of the $\ensuremath{\pi}$ mode system confirms the evanescent tunneling effect of the electron-coupled plasmons.

Evanescent tunneling of an effective surface plasmon excited by convection electrons.

A vacuum tube oscillator fabricated by the deep etch X-ray lithography: lithographie, galvanoformung, abformung (LIGA) process was successfully developed for the first time. For the proof-of-concept experiment involving a delayed feedback oscillator, a folding-waveguide traveling-wave tube (FWTWT) was fabricated by computer numerical control milling in advance. With a 12.4-kV and 150-mA electron beam, a Ka-band FWTWT amplifier shows a linear gain of 25 dB and a bandwidth of 10%. Applying a delayed feedback scheme, the threshold feedback strengths for the onset of oscillation and for self-modulation were measured to be -30 dB and -16 dB, respectively. The optimum value of the feedback strength for the single-frequency oscillation at 32.5 GHz was about -18 dB with a net electronic efficiency of 6%. The LIGA-fabricated FWTWT circuit was constructed by a lithographic process using the synchrotron X-ray source at the Pohang Light Source. The resulting accuracy and average surface roughness were less than 10 and 1 /spl mu/m, respectively. The LIGA-fabricated Ka-band amplifier shows a linear gain of 15 dB and bandwidth of 1.7% with a 12.4-kV, 47-mA electron beam. The threshold for the onset of oscillation was about -11 dB and the optimum value of feedback strength for a single frequency oscillation at 35 GHz with a net electronic efficiency of 3.5% was about -8 dB.

Kyu-Ha Jang

Papers

Superradiant terahertz Smith-Purcell radiation from surface plasmon excited by counterstreaming electron beams

Microfabrication of millimeter wave vacuum electron devices by two-step deep-etch x-ray lithography

Low-voltage operation of Ka-band folded waveguide traveling-wave tube

Evanescent tunneling of an effective surface plasmon excited by convection electrons.

Investigations on a microfabricated FWTWT oscillator