Stimulated coherent cyclotron scattering, millimeter, and submillimeter wave generator

摘要

An improved apparatus and technique for providing tunable high power millimeter and submillimeter radiation. A tunable source of microwave energy is coupled to an evacuated drift tube in which an intense relativistic electron beam is propagated while constrained in a magnetic field having a direction parallel to the direction of the electron beam. The microwave energy is directed in a direction opposite to the direction of the electron beam to generate millimeter or submillimeter radiation by backscattering from the intense relativistic electron beam. By tuning the frequency of the microwave energy to be mismatched by a specific amount from the electron cyclotron frequency in the rest frame of the electrons at high beam currents, a coherent scattering of microwave energy from electron bunches will produce enhanced power output of millimeter and submillimeter radiation.