Some Advances in Theory and Experiment of High-Frequency Vacuum Electron Devices in China

TLDR

High‑frequency vacuum electron devices in China have advanced, with recent work covering traveling‑wave tubes using novel slow‑wave structures, high‑harmonic amplifiers, gyrotrons, Smith‑Purcell and surface plasmon polariton sources, and terahertz emitters in ion‑focused beam‑plasma systems. The study investigates traveling‑wave tubes employing folded, planar, and grating slow‑wave structures across Ka‑band to R‑band frequencies through theoretical analysis and experimental validation. The authors report the development of two folded‑SWS traveling‑wave amplifiers, the presentation of gyrotron‑based TWTs, oscillators, and gyroklystrons, and the demonstration that Smith‑Purcell, surface plasmon polariton, and ion‑focused beam‑plasma terahertz sources offer promising avenues for next‑generation high‑frequency VEDs.

Abstract

The advances of high-frequency vacuum electron devices (VEDs) in China are reviewed in this paper, including traveling-wave tubes (TWTs) based on novel slow-wave structures (SWSs), high harmonic TWT amplifier, gyrotrons, Smith-Purcell (SP) radiation sources, surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) sources, and terahertz (THz) radiation sources in ion-focused beam-plasma system. As one of the most widely used VEDs, TWTs based on folded type SWSs, planar SWSs, and grating type SWSs are studied theoretically and experimentally from Ka-band to R-band. Using folded type SWSs, two TWT amplifiers are developed. As high-power millimeter wave and THz wave sources, gyrotron TWTs, gyrotron oscillators, and gyroklystrons are presented. Moreover, this paper shows SP radiation sources, SPPs sources, and THz radiation sources in ion-focused beam-plasma system open good prospects for developing high-frequency VEDs with new mechanisms, which undoubtedly brings about innovative changes for the development of VEDs.