High-power, single-beam plasma wave tube
Short-pulse, ultra-broadband sources of RF radiation are needed for a variety of new applications. To meet this demand, we have developed and optimized a single-beam Plasma Wave Tube (PWT), The PWT is a unique microwave/millimeter-wave source which utilizes the interaction between beamexcited electr...
Saved in:
Published in | IEEE transactions on plasma science Vol. 22; no. 5; pp. 593 - 599 |
---|---|
Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
New York
IEEE
01.10.1994
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
Cover
Loading…
Summary: | Short-pulse, ultra-broadband sources of RF radiation are needed for a variety of new applications. To meet this demand, we have developed and optimized a single-beam Plasma Wave Tube (PWT), The PWT is a unique microwave/millimeter-wave source which utilizes the interaction between beamexcited electron plasma waves to generate kilowatt-power (/spl sim/10 kW) radiation at microwave to millimeter-wave frequencies with a beam-to-radiation conversion efficiency of /spl ges/0.4%. In a single-beam PWT, an electron beam (/spl les/40 kV, /spl ges/200 A, 5-to-20-/spl mu/s pulse width) is injected into a gas-filled (e,g., hydrogen) cylindrical waveguide. The beam first ionizes the gas to generate a plasma, and then nonlinearly interacts with the plasma to generate radiation from 6-to-60 GHz. Slew rates of up to 7 GHz//spl mu/s have been measured during a single beam pulse. The radiation has a wide instantaneous bandwidth, typically 10 GHz or wider. Electron-beam transport through the waveguide is accomplished with no externally applied magnetic fields because the beam space charge is cancelled by the background plasma.< > |
---|---|
Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0093-3813 1939-9375 |
DOI: | 10.1109/27.338272 |