Quasi-optical gyro-peniotron at high cyclotron harmonics

Abstract

Abstract This paper proposes a new kind of device operating at short millimetre wavelength, in which RF radiation generation is based on the interaction of a beam of sub-relativistic gyrating electrons and the RF standing-wave field of a quasi-optical resonator. This device can be called ‘quasi-optical gyro-peniotron’ because it is similar in electron-beam configuration, microwave circuitry and cyclotron resonance properties to the quasi-optical gyrotron and in its operational mechanism to the peniotron. Starting from relativistic equations of motion for the electrons, the calculation formulae are derived. Using computer simulation, a beam-wave interaction efficiency of 43% is obtained for the third cyclotron harmonic at frequency 100 GHz, beam voltage 80 kV and the applied magnetic field 13·3 kG, indicating that this tube will be potentially a high-efficiency high-power source not requiring a superconduction magnet system even within the 150 GHz band.