A PSEUDOSPARK CATHODE CHERENKOV MASER - THEORY AND EXPERIMENT

The pseudospark discharge offers the possibility of producing electron beams which are very attractive for use in high-power microwave gener ation. A pseudospark-based Cherenkov maser amplifier is currently unde r development at Strathclyde University. The electron beam source for this maser is a multi-gap pseudospark discharge. Preliminary results f rom recent Cherenkov maser experiments and a comparison with a numeric al simulation are presented. A microwave pulse of 100 ns duration and approximately 10 kW peak power was generated by a 80 kV, 20 A beam pas sed through an alumina-lined waveguide when the interaction was allowe d to start up from noise, which appeared to originate from the pseudos park discharge. Simulations agree well with the experimental results w hen a beam energy spread of 1.5% is assumed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.