Mode competition and selection in overmoded surface wave oscillator

Abstract

The overmoded surface wave oscillator (SWO) is one of the promising devices to generate high-power millimeter and subterahertz waves for its merits of high efficiency and easy fabrication. But the employed slow wave structure with large diameter may introduce mode competition as the adverse effects. Therefore, the mode competition and selection in the overmoded surface wave oscillator are investigated in detail in this paper. By using the theoretical analysis and particle-in-cell simulation, the potential transverse mode and axial mode competition is pointed out, and the physical mechanisms and methods for mode selection are investigated. At last, the results are verified in the design of a 0.14 THz overmoded SWO without mode competition, which can generate the output power up to 70 MW at the frequency of 146.3 GHz with conversion efficiency almost 20% when beam voltage and current are, respectively, about 313 kV and 1.13 kA.