Rigorous Analysis of the Disk-Loaded Waveguide Slow-Wave Structures

Recently disk-loaded waveguide has been widely used in high-power traveling wave tubes (HPTWT). Although TM ₀₁ mode is it's main mode, the asymmetry mode may be excited by slight asymmetry of the structure, misalignment of the beam, or the asymmetry associated with the input or output structure. So research about asymmetry mode of disk-loaded waveguide is necessary. The general dispersion equation and interaction impedance expression of disk-loaded waveguide is obtained with accurate field theory for the first time. Based on these results, a broadband and a narrowband disk-loaded waveguides are designed which can be used in the Ka band HPTWT. Moreover, the theoretical calculated results are compared with the simulated results from the HFSS (High Frequency Structure Simulator) code using finite element method. It is found that frequency domain overlapped by these two modes of the narrowband structure is very narrow, so the HEM ₁₁ mode may be ignored when calculating Beam-wave interaction. In the other hand, the interaction impedance of HEM ₁₁ mode is very low generally.