Experimental demonstration of a terahertz extended interaction oscillator driven by a pseudospark-sourced sheet electron beam

Abstract

We have recently proposed to combine the advantages of a pseudospark-sourced sheet electron beam (PS-SEB) with a planar slow wave structure to generate high power terahertz radiation. To verify this idea, experimental investigation of an extended interaction oscillator based on the PS-SEB has been conducted and presented. A PS-SEB of approximately 1.0 mm × 0.17 mm in size with 21.5 A peak current (1.26 × 104 A/cm2 beam current density) and 34.5 kV peak voltage was measured after propagating a distance of 10-mm without the need of an external focusing magnetic field. A radiation pulse of ∼35 ns in duration and an output power of over 10 W at a frequency of ∼0.2 THz were measured.