Experimental investigation of a coaxial gyrotron oscillator

This thesis presents experimental results of a megawatt power level, 140 GHz coaxial gyrotron oscillator. The coaxial gyrotron has the potential to transport very high power electron beams and thus achieve higher microwave output power levels than conventional gyrotrons. A TE2 ,3 coaxial gyrotron was designed to operate at 95 kV, 76 A. This tube was tested to high power with the first high power Inverted Magnetron Injection Gun (IMIG). The IMIG electron gun was tested to 10 MW (105 kV, 93 A), which is the highest power level for a non-relativistic gyrotron gun. Operation of the coaxial gyrotron oscillator yielded power levels of greater than 1 MW in two different configurations: with the coaxial conductor (at 92kV, 70 A, and 16% efficiency) and without the coaxial conductor (85 kV,65 A, and 18% efficiency). We also successfully operated this tube in three configurations (empty cavity, radial output, and axial output) with no beam interception. We observed regimes of dominant single mode and multi-mode operation. We also identified electron beam asymmetries and tube alignment as two major issues, which can limit the performance of a coaxial gyrotron. An unexpected source of magnetic field error was found in the magnetization of the stainless steel parts. All these results have led to techniques for improving not only coaxial gyrotrons but also other gyrotron tubes.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

1999

Author dc:creator

• Advani, Rahul N

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Richard Temkin.

• Nuclear Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85377

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/85377