Spontaneous emission and spectral properties of radiation by relativistic electrons in a gyro‐klystron and optical‐klystron undulator

In this paper spontaneous emission of radiation by relativistic electrons in a gyro‐klystron is studied. The scheme consists of two solenoid sections separated by a dispersive section. In the dispersive section the electrons are made non‐resonant with the radiation. The dispersive section transforms a small change of the velocity into changes of the phases of the electrons. This leads to enhanced radiation due to klystron‐type modulation as compared with a conventional gyrotron‐type device driven by cyclotron maser interaction. It is shown that the klystron‐modulated spectrum depends on the dispersive field strength, finite perpendicular velocity component and length of the solenoids but is independent of the axial magnetic field strength. A simple scheme to design a gyro‐klystron is discussed.