CW Operation of a Submillimeter Wave Gyrotron (Gyrotron Fu IV) for High Stability of the Output Frequency

The first cw operation of our submillimeter wave gyrotron (Gyrotron FU IV) using a 12 T superconducting magnet has been successfully carried out. Output power is more than 20 W at a frequency of 301 GHz in the TE₀₃₁ resonant cavity mode. Time-resolved frequency measurement s shows that the frequency fluctuation of the gyrotron output is smaller than 2 MHz. This frequency fluctuation is mainly due to the fluctuation in the output voltage of the power supply.     

Analysis of a Complete Gyrotron Oscillator Using the Scattering Matrix Description

Complete harmonic gyrotron oscillators in axial arrangement including cavity, uptapers, collector waveguide and output window have been numerically simulated using a scattering matrix resonator code. The output mode purity and the influence of window reflections on the performance of a step-tunable, very high frequency gyrotron, Gyrotron FU IV A, at Fukui University was analyzed.     

THE FIRST EXPERIMENT OF A THz GYROTRON WITH A PULSE MAGNET

A THz gyrotron with a pulse magnet has been designed, constructed and operated in FIR FU. It is developed as one of high frequency gyrotrons included in Gyrotron FU Series. The gyrotron has already achieved the first experimental result for high frequency operations whose radiation frequency exceeds 1 THz. In this paper, the design detail and the operation test results for sub-terahertz to terahertz range are described. The second harmonic operation is confirmed experimentally at the expected frequency of 1.005 THz due to TE_6,11 cavity mode at the magnetic field intensity of 19.0 T.     

Development of 394.6 GHz CW Gyrotron (Gyrotron FU CW II) for DNP/Proton-NMR at 600 MHz

Gyrotron FU CW II with an 8 T liquid He free superconducting magnet, the second gyrotron of the THz Gyrotron FU CW Series, has been constructed and the operation test was successfully carried out. It will be used for enhancing the sensitivity of 600 MHz proton-NMR by use of Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP). The designed operation mode of the gyrotron is TE_2,6 at the second harmonic. The corresponding frequency is 394.6 GHz. The real operation frequency is 394.3 GHz at TE₀₆ mode, because of fabrication error of the diameter of the cavity. The operation is in complete CW at the output power of around 30 W or higher at the TE₀₆ cavity mode. There are many other operation modes at the fundamental and the second harmonic. Typical output power of the fundamental and the second harmonic are higher than 100 W and 20 W, respectively. The highest frequency observed up to the present is 443.5 GHz at the second harmonic operation of TE_6,5 mode. The measured results are compared with the theoretical consideration.     

Development of frequency tunable, medium power gyrotrons (GyrotronFU series) as submillimeter wave radiation sources

High frequency, medium power gyrotrons (Gyrotron FU series) have been developed at Fukui University as radiation sources covering a broad band from millimeter to submillimeter wave region. They have already been applied to high frequency electron spin resonance and to submillimeter wave scattering in plasma. Many parameters of the gyrotron series could be useful for applications in several new areas. The development and some applications of the Gyrotron FU series are summarized in this paper     

High Power, Frequency Tunable, Submillimeter Wave ESR Device Using a Gyrotron as a Radiation Source

ESR device using a submillimeter wave gyrotron as a radiation source and a pulse magnet for high field up to 30 T has been constructed. Our gyrotrons (Gyrotron FU series) were developed as millimeter and submillimeter wave radiation sources and have attractive advantages for ESR spectroscopy, for example, high power and frequency tunability over broad range. The ESR device has been successfully applied to three cases of ESR measurements. In the first case, the temperature dependence of ESR was measured for a typical antiferromagnetic material MnO at the frequency of 301 GHz. In the second case, the dependence of the fine structure constant of the ruby on the magnetic field intensity was measured in the millimeter to submillimeter wave region. In these two cases, the gyrotron was operated by complete cw mode. In the final case, a pulse technique was applied to the ESR, the gyrotron was operated in pulse mode and the pulsed magnetic field was generated in the synchronized phase with the gyrotron operation.     

Observation of Frequency Down-Shift in a Submillimeter Wave Gyrotron

Frequency down-shift in the initial stage of CW or long pulse operation of a submillimeter wave gyrotron, Gyrotron FU IV, is observed. The shift occurs in a few minutes after turning on the operation and the amount of the shift attains even 0.1 GHz. The observation results are analyzed on the basis of a simple model for heat conduction in the region of a resonant cavity. The frequency shift is explained consistently by expansion of the cavity.     

Mode Cooperation in a Submillimeter Wave FU Series Gyrotron

At certain gyrotron operating conditions, mode cooperation instead of mode competition takes place between a fundamental and a second harmonic mode. This means the phase bunching of a gyrating electron beam under the second harmonic operation reduces the starting current for the fundamental operation and increases total output power as well as beam efficiency. Such mode cooperation is observed in experiments and confirmed by computer simulations for submillimeter wave Gyrotron FU II.     

Simulation and measurement of frequency modulation insubmillimeter-wave gyrotron

Frequency modulation of the gyrotron output has been numerically simulated employing the approximation of weakly relativistic, mono-velocity electron beam as well as a quasi-empirical approach. The simulation results are compared to a first experiment in the 300 GHz region performed with a submillimeter-wave gyrotron named “Gyrotron FU IV”. The modulation amplitude of 30 MHz has been achieved by a 120 V modulation of the accelerating voltage resulting in the variation of the relativistic electron mass and in the corresponding modulation of the electron cyclotron frequency. Calculated amplitudes of frequency modulation are in reasonable agreement with the experimental results     

Observation of Mode Patterns for High Purity Mode Operation in the Submillimeter Wave Gyrotron FU VA

Operation tests of a cavity designed for high purity mode operation of the submillimeter wave gyrotron FU VA has been carried out successfully. The observed emission patterns of several cavity modes appear very pure and are compared with calculated results. High purity mode operation has the advantage of making the conversion to Gaussian-like beams more efficient.     

Observation of Mode Patterns for High Purity Mode Operation in the Submillimeter Wave Gyrotron FU VA

Operation tests of a cavity designed for high purity mode operation of the submillimeter wave gyrotron FU VA has been carried out successfully. The observed emission patterns of several cavity modes appear very pure and are compared with calculated results. High purity mode operation has the advantage of making the conversion to Gaussian-like beams more efficient.     

Singular and Hypersingular Integral Equations Techniques for Gyrotron Coaxial Resonators with a Corrugated Insert

For the first time rigorous theory is developed for eigen traveling TM modes in the resonator of the coaxial cavity gyrotron with a corrugated insert. This mathematical model can be applied for any corrugation parameters and wavelengths. Gyrotron simulation software is developed and allows to calculate mode eigenvalues, electromagnetic field components and Ohmic losses for eigen TE and TM modes. Results of the numerical investigations are presented for the ITER relevant 170 GHz coaxial cavity gyrotron developed in Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany.     

Application of the Gyrotron FU II Submillimeter Wave Radiation Source to Plasma Scattering Measurements

Gyrotron FU II has been successfully applied as a submillimeter wave radiation source to plasma scattering measurements on the Compact Helical System (CHS) in National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS) in Japan. The gyrotron operates in a long pulse mode (the pulse width is about 600 ms) at a frequency of about 350 GHz (the corresponding wavelength is 0.85 mm). The output power is about 110 W. The output power is transmitted along a circular waveguide system and converted to a Gaussian-like beam by a quasi-optical antenna. After that, the beam is directed onto the CHS plasma and the scattered signal is detected by a homodyne detection system. The frequency and the wave number of the scattered signal are analyzed. The results suggest that a broad band low frequency (several tens to several hundreds kHz) density fluctuation is excited in the CHS plasma only during neutral beam injection (NBI) or ion cyclotron resonance (ICR) heating.     

A Quasi-Optical System for Converting TE0n Mode Outputs of a Gyrotron into Gaussian Beams

In this paper we present a novel design of a quasi-optical system for conversion of gyrotron outputs into Gaussian-like beams. It consists of a quasi-optical antenna, two focusing mirrors and a filter which removes the side lobes of the beam. The system is appropriate as a transmission line for frequency tunable gyrotrons operating at TE_0n mode. As an illustration of our approach, we present results which demonstrate the applicability of the developed system for conversion of the radiation generated by the Gyrotron FU IVA. The examples include conversion of three TE_0n modes (TE₀₂, 223 GHz; TE₀₃, 323 GHz; TE₀₄, 423 GHz) into Gaussian- like beams.     

Mode competition, suppression, and efficiency enhancement in overmoded gyrotron oscillators

Gyrotron oscillators are of great interest as sources of high power mm wave radiation for electron cyclotron resonance heating and current drive in magnetic fusion research devices. Gyrotrons capable of efficiently generating cw power 1 megawatt will be required in future magnetic fusion studies. However, as gyrotron power approaches the megawatt level, a very large, overmoded cavity must be employed in order to keep ohmic power losses in the cavity at an acceptable level, and the problem of mode overpopulation becomes severe. Also, it becomes increasingly important to optimize gyrotron efficiency for a number of important reasons including minimizing the problem of collecting the electron beam energy. In the present paper, a detailed experimental and theoretical study of mode competition and mode locking in an overmoded gyrotron is presented. Efficiency enhancement (to 60%) and high peak power (430 kW) were achieved in the TE_2,4,1 mode using magnetostatic profiling in the cavity. With selective mode suppression, peak power of 475 kW was generated in the TE_0,4,1 mode.This work was performed at the Naval Research Laboratory. Some of the authors have affiliations with other institutions, as indicated:     

Experimental study of a continuous-wave high-stability second-harmonic gyrotron for spectroscopy of dynamically polarized nuclei

We present the results of the experiments on a continuous-wave gyrotron with an output frequency of about 260 GHz, which has been developed for dynamic polarization of nuclei and is operated at the second cyclotron-frequency harmonic. For an accelerating voltage of 16 kV and a beam current of 0.3 A, a maximum continuous-wave radiation power of about 200 W has been obtained. Measurements of the thermal load on the resonator cavity allow evaluating its actual ohmic Q-factor. Gyrotron radiation is also observed at other frequencies and modes. Their generation zones and the structure of the output radiation have been studied. Long-term stability of gyrotron parameters has been determined.     

Performance Test of CW 300?GHz Gyrotron FU CW I

A 300 GHz CW gyrotron FU CW I has been developed and installed in the Research Center for Development of Far-Infrared Region, University of Fukui as a power source of a high frequency material processing system. Its performance was tested and the maximum power of 1.75 kW / CW has been attained at the beam voltage of 15 kV and the beam current of 1A. The maximum window power efficiency of 15.5% has been obtained at the cathode voltage slightly lower than 15 kV. This gyrotron is designed to deliver a Gaussian beam after mode conversion from the oscillation mode TE_22,8 in the cavity with a complex of an internal radiator and beam shaping mirrors. The detailed measurement with an infrared camera has confirmed that a Gaussian beam is radiated when the magnetic field strength B _c at the cavity is adjusted at a proper value. However, within a range of B _c , the output power is emerged into multiple directions, which suggests simultaneous oscillation of competing cavity modes.     

Higher Harmonic Operations of Submillimeter Wave Gyrotrons (Gyrotron FU Series)

Higher harmonic operation of gyrotrons is necessary to obtain high frequencies. Some gyrotrons included in the Gyrotron FU series developed at Fukui University have achieved operation at the third and even fourth harmonics of the electron cyclotron frequency. The output lies in the millimeter to submillimeter wavelength range and the output powers are several watts to several tens of watts. In this paper, the gyrotrons and the conditions under which they operate are described in detail.     

A Gyrotron with a High Q Cavity for Plasma Scattering Diagnostics

A 137-GHz gyrotron with a high Q (~6000) cavity has been built and tested in short-pulse operation. Output power of 0.1-20 kW and efficiency of up to 26 percent were observed at 65-kV, 0.03-1.4-A operation in the TE031 mode. Frequency pulling of 2-kHz/V was measured. This small frequency pulling value indicates that a long pulse or CW gyrotron with high stability (<1-MHz bandwidth) is possible. Operation at currents of 3-5 A, which is very far above threshold, resulted in the excitation of many higher axial modes.     

Design of a new cavity for a low-power tunable gyrotron

A new cavity design for a tunable gyrotron, with reduced mode conversion over a broad frequency range, is described. With most of the output power in the same mode as that in the cavity, there will be no need to adjust the position and orientation of the elements of the quasioptical antenna whenever the frequency is changed.