RECOVERY OF ELECTRON-ENERGY IN CYCLOTRON AUTORESONANCE MASERS

Possibilities of efficiency enhancement in cyclotron autoresonance mas ers (CARMs) due to the use of recovery of the electron energy with a s ingle-step depressed collector scheme are studied. The simple and very clear method of using the phase plane is developed for the analysis o f the motion of electrons with different initial velocities in the CAR M, operating in various regimes at both fundamental and higher cyclotr on harmonics. The total efficiency can exceed 25% for a CARM with a lo w electron efficiency operating in the regime of electron bunching and 50% for a CARM in the regime of trapping and adiabatic deceleration: of particles. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.