Theory, design and operation of a high-power second-harmonic gyro-TWT amplifier

Based on the cyclotron resonance maser (CRM) instability, the gyrotron traveling wave tube (gyro-TWT) amplifier is an efficient high power microwave and millimeter wave coherent radiation source. As evidenced in previous experiments, gyro-TWTs, however, can be very susceptible to spontaneous oscillations, and their output powers have thus been limited to relatively low levels. In this dissertation work, thorough theoretical and experimental studies have been conducted to demonstrate and confirm a novel "marginal stability design" (MSD) concept that a harmonic gyro-TWT amplifier is more stable to spontaneous oscillation than a fundamental harmonic gyro-TWT amplifier. Since their interactions are, in general, weaker and allow higher levels of electron beam current, harmonic gyro-TWTs can yield, in principle, a significantly higher RF output power than a fundamental gyro-TWT. The study results also show that a magnetron injection gun (MIG) type electron beam is applicable to harmonic gyro-TWTs.; A complete analytic linear theory employing Laplace transforms and a three dimensional nonlinear theory using a slow time-scale formalism are developed in Chapt. 2 for the general CRM interaction to address the issue of stability. Two designs were developed to demonstrate the MSD procedure. The design and development of the proof-of-principle experiment are discussed in Chapt. 3. The accompanying cold test results indicate that all the components have met their respective design goals. The RF diagnostic circuit employed to characterize the gyro-TWT amplifier is also described.; Chapter 4 presents the hot-test results of the second-harmonic {dollar}TEsb{lcub}21{rcub}{dollar} gyro-TWT amplifier experiment in which an 80 kV, 20 A MIG beam with {dollar}alpha(equivupsilonsbperp/upsilonsbVert{dollar}) = 1 was used to generate a peak RF output power of 207 kW in Ku-band with an efficiency of 12.9%. In addition, the saturated gain is 16 dB, the small signal gain is 22 dB, the measured bandwidth is 2.1%, and the amplifier was zero-drive stable.; As pointed out in Chapt. 5, the theoretical and experimental studies conducted in this work have successfully realized their objectives. Further improvements to the current proof-of-principle experiment and an increase in the operating frequency by operating at an even higher cyclotron harmonic are promising and worthy of future efforts.