Sheet Beam Slow-wave Amplifiers

Sheet electron beams used in conjunction with slow-wave (Cerenkov) structures are a promising way to realize higher average power millimeter-wave amplifiers. For example, a sheet beam with a meander line structure is proposed to obtain a 100 watt W-band power booster amplifier. A sheet beam with a tapered grating structure is also being considered as a wideband ({approximately} 10--20% instantaneous bandwidth) Ka-band amplifier with approximately 10 kW of average output power. The authors describe results of research that examine critical technological issues relevant to the realization of the proposed devices. The method of forming a sheet beam using magnetic quadrupole lenses and focusing it using periodically-cusped magnetic (PCM) fields are discussed. A pencil beam from a 10 kV, 0.25 A Pierce electron source is used for the initial investigations. The EGUN simulations with the measured magnetic field indicates that a thin (2 mm dia.) beam is available at the interaction region. Beam characterization has been performed using current density probes and an electrostatic velocity spread analyzer. Numerical modeling and cold test measurements of a tapered slow-wave structure together with the simulations and measurements of small-signal gain and bandwidth are also presented.