Ultrawide-bandwidth gain in a coaxial dielectric Cherenkov maser

A coaxial waveguide partially filled with a dielectric as the slow-wave structure of a dielectric Cherenkov maser is investigated. The dispersion of the fundamental mode of this waveguide is very weak at phase velocities close to the velocity of light, and for this reason a very wide gain bandwidth is possible under conditions of an interaction with a relativistic electron beam. The dispersion equation for an infinitely thin tubular beam in a coaxial waveguide with a dielectric liner adjoining either the outer or inner conducting surface is derived. The gain bandwidth as a function of the parameters of the electron beam and the slow-wave system are investigated on the basis of numerical solution of the dispersion equation, and a comparison with similar dependences for the conventional configuration of a dielectric Cherenkov maser is made. The structural features of the coaxial configuration which enable novel approaches to the problems of matching the microwave signal at the entrance and exit of the system are discussed. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 67, 66–72 (May 1997)