Simulational Investigation of a High-Efficiency X-Band Magnetically Insulated Line Oscillator

Abstract The magnetically insulated line oscillator （MILO） is a gigawatt-class, coaxial crossed-field microwave tube, which is at present a major hotspot in the field of high-power mi- crowaves （HPM） research. In order to improve the power conversion efficiency and eliminate or at least minimize anode plasma formation in the load region and radio frequency （RF） breakdown in the slow wave structure （SWS） section, an X-band MILO is presented and inyestigated nu- merically with KARAT code. The design idea is briefly presented and the simulation results are given and discussed. In the simulation, HPM is generated with peak power of 3.4 GW, maximum electric field of about 1 MV/cm, and peak power conversion efficiency of 14.0%, when the voltage is 559.1 kV and the current is 43.2 kA. The microwave frequency is pure and falls in the X-band of 9.0 GHz. The theoretical investigation and the simulation results are given to prove that the anode plasma formation and the RF breakdown can be effectively avoided or at least minimized, respectively.

Investigation of an X-band magnetically insulated transmission line oscillator

An X-band magnetically insulated transmission line oscillator （MILO） is designed and investigated numerically and experimentally for the first time. The X-band MILO is optimized in detail with KARAT code. In simulation, the X-band MILO, driven by a 720 kV, 53 kA electron beam, comes to a nonlinear steady state in 4.0 ns. High-power microwaves （HPM） of TEM mode is generated with an average power of 4.1 GW, a frequency of 9.3 GHz, and power conversion efficiency of 10.870 in durations of 0-40 ns. The device is fabricated according to the simulation results. In experiments, when the voltage is 400 kV and the current is 50 kA, the radiated microwave power reaches about 110 MW and the dominating frequency is 9.7GHz. Because the surfaces of the cathode end and the beam dump are destroyed, the diode voltage cannot increase continuously. However, when the diode voltage is 400 kV, the average power output is obtained to be 700 MW in simulation. The impedance of the device is clearly smaller than the simulation prediction. Moreover, the duration of the microwave pulse is obviously shorter than that of the current pulse. The experimental results are greatly different from the simulation predictions. The preliminary analyses show that the generations of the anode plasma, the cathode flare and the anode flare are the essential cause for the remarkable deviation of the experimental results from the simulation predictions.

Experimental Study of Current Loss of Stainless Steel Magnetically Insulated Transmission Line with Current Density at MA/cm Level

A magnetically insulated transmission line （MITL） is used to transmit high power electric pulses in large pulse power systems. However, current loss is unavoidable, especially when the current density is up to 1 MA/cm. In the paper, the current loss of an MITL made of stainless steel, which is usually used in large pulse power generators, is experimentally studied, and possible mechanisms to explain the current loss of the MITL are analyzed and discussed. From the experimental results, the relationship between loss current density and input current density follows approximately a power law. The loss is also related to the configuration of the MITL.

Magnetically insulated transmission line oscillator oscillated in a modified HEM_(11) mode

This paper puts forward a novel magnetically insulated transmission line oscillator （MILO） for the first time which takes a modified HEM11 mode as its main interaction mode. The excitation of the oscillation mode is made possible by carefully adjusting the arrangements of each resonant cavity in a two-dimensional （2-D） slow wave structure. The high frequency characteristics are analyzed and a PIC simulation is carried out; the detailed results are discussed to get a better understanding of this new MILO. Employing an electron beam of about 441 kV and 39.7 kA, it finds that the modified HEM11 mode MILO generates a high power microwave output of about 1.47 GW at 1.45 GHz. The power conversion efficiency is about 8.4% and the generated microwave is in a TEll-like circularly polarized mode; its polarization direction is decided by the rotation direction of the SWS.

HEM_(11) mode magnetically insulated transmission line oscillator:Simulation and experiment

A novel magnetically insulated transmission line oscillator （MILO） in which a modified HEM11 mode is taken as its main interaction mode （HEM11 mode MILO） is simulated and experimented in this paper. The excitation of the oscillation mode is made possible by carefully adjusting the arrangement of each resonant cavity in a two-dimensional slow wave structure. The special feature of such a device is that in the slow-wave-structure region, the interaction mode is HEM11 mode which is a TM-like one that could interact with electron beams effectively; and in the coaxial output region, the microwave mode is TE11 mode which has a favourable field density pattern to be directly radiated. Employing an electron beam of about 441 kV and 39.7 kA, the HEM11 mode MILO generates a high power microwave output of about 1.47 GW at 1.45 GHz in particle-in-cell simulation. The power conversion efficiency is about 8.4 % and the generated microwave is in a TEll-like circular polarization mode. In a preliminary experiment investigation, high power microwave is detected from the device with a frequency of 1.46 GHz, an output energy of 43 J 47 J, and a pulse duration of 44 ns-49 ns when the input voltage is 430 kV450 kV, and the diode current is 37 kA-39 kA.

A tunable magnetically insulated transmission line oscillator

A tunable magnetically insulated transmission line oscillator（MILO） is put forward and simulated. When the MILO is driven by a 430 k V, 40.6 k A electron beam, high-power microwave is generated with a peak output power of 3.0 GW and frequency of 1.51 GHz, and the relevant power conversion efficiency is 17.2%. The 3-d B tunable frequency range（the relative output power is above half of the peak output power） is 2.25–0.825 GHz when the outer radius of the slow-wave structure（SWS） vanes ranges from 77 mm to 155 mm, and the 3-d B tuning bandwidth is 92%, which is sufficient for the aim of large-scale tuning and high power output.

Investigation on current loss of high-power vacuum transmission lines with coaxial-disk transitions by particle-in-cell simulations

Coaxial-disk transitions can generate non-uniform magnetic fields and abrupt impedance variations in magnetically insulated transmission lines(MITLs),resulting in disturbed electron flow and non-negligible current loss.In this paper,3 D particle-in-cell simulations are conducted with UNPIC-3 d to investigate the current loss mechanism and the influence of the input parameters of the coaxial-disk transition on current loss in an MITL system.The results reveal that the magnetic field non-uniformity causes major current loss in the MITL after the coaxialdisk transition,and the non-uniformity decreases with the distance away from the transition.The uniformity of the magnetic field is improved when increasing the number of feed lines of a linear transformer driver-based accelerator with coaxial-disk transitions.The number of input feed lines should be no less than four in the azimuthal distribution to obtain acceptable uniformity of the magnetic field.To make the ratio of the current loss to the total current of the accelerator less than 2%at peak anode current,the ratio of the current in each feed line to the total current should be no less than 8%.

Dynamic Model for the Z Accelerator Vacuum Section Based on Transmission Line Code

The transmission-line-circuit model of the Z accelerator, developed originally by W. A. STYGAR, P. A. CORCORAN, et al., is revised. The revised model uses different calculations for the electron loss and flow impedance in the magnetically insulated transmission line system of the Z accelerator before and after magnetic insulation is established. By including electron pressure and zero electric field at the cathode, a closed set of equations is obtained at each time step, and dynamic shunt resistance （used to represent any electron loss to the anode） and flow impedance are solved, which have been incorporated into the transmission line code for simulations of the vacuum section in the Z accelerator. Finally, the results are discussed in comparison with earlier findings to show the effectiveness and limitations of the model.

Research progresses on Cherenkov and transit-time high-power microwave sources at NUDT

Research progresses on Cherenkov and transit-time high-power microwave(HPM)sources in National University of Defense Technology(NUDT)of China are presented.The research issues are focused on the following aspects.The pulse-shortening phenomenon in O-type Cerenkov HPM devices is suppressed.The compact coaxial relativistic backward-wave oscillators(RBWOs)at low bands are developed.The power efficiency in M-Type HPM tubes without guiding magnetic field increased.The power capacities and power efficiencies in the triaxial klystron amplifier(TKA)and relativistic transit-time oscillator(TTO)at higher frequencies increased.In experiments,some exciting results were obtained.The X-band source generated 2 GW microwave power with a pulse duration of 110 ns in 30 Hz repetition mode.Both L-and P-band compact RBWOs generated over 2 GW microwave power with a power efficiency of over 30%.There is approximately a 75% decline of the volume compared with that of conventional RBWO under the same power capacity conditions.A 1.755 GHz MILO produced 3.1 GW microwave power with power efficiency of 10.4%.A 9.37 GHz TKA produced the 240 MW microwave power with the gain of 34 dB.A 14.3 GHz TTO produced 1 GW microwave power with power efficiency of 20%.

Insulating Permanent Lining of Calcium Hexaluminate Based Castable for 300t Ladle in Baosteel

Minimizing of heat loss of liquid steel through the ladle lining led to the integration of increasing insulation function of the permanent lining and high-quality insulating layer between the permanent lining and the ladle steel shell.In this paper,a study was made on physical and thermomechanical properties and corrosion resistance of calcium hexaluminate based castables.The chemical and physical properties of CA6 based castables fabricated in this work can fulfill general requirements of the permanent lining in ladle.The permanent linings of CA6 based castables offer superb thermal insulation and corrosion resistance,compared to conventional refractory systems of 300t ladle in Baosteel.Both functions of insulation and safety work effectively in whole process of ladle operation.

Frequency Tunability and Slow-Wave Characteristics of a High-Efficiency Ridged MILO

A high-efficiency ridged magnetically insulated transmission line oscillator (RMILO) is proposed and investigated theoretically and numerically in this paper. In the RMILO, ridge-disk vanes are introduced to enhance the power efficiency. Theoretical investigation shows that the ridge-disk can enhance the coupling impedance of the slow-wave structure (SWS), and so enhance the power efficiency. Moreover, the ridge has a weak influence on frequency, so, it influences little on the tunability of the MILO. In simulation, when the applied voltage is increased to 807 kV, the RMILO can get the 3 dB tunable frequency range with 7.6 - 13.9 GHz and the 3 dB tuning bandwidth with 58.6% which has an increase of 27.6% compared with the conventional MILO. So, the tuning performance of the RMILO is more superior. Besides, the RMILO gets the maximum output power of 7.1 GW, the corresponding power efficiency is 22.6% and the frequency is 1.400 GHz. Furthermore, when the applied voltage is increased to 807 kV, high-power microwave with a power of 13.5 GW, frequency of 1.400 GHz, and ef?ciency of 24.5% is generated, which has an increase of 20.2% compared with the conventional MILO. The simulation results con?rm the ones predicted by theoretical analysis.

A low-outgassing-rate carbon fiber array cathode

In this paper, a new carbon fiber based cathode — a low-outgassing-rate carbon fiber array cathode — is investigated experimentally, and the experimental results are compared with those of a polymer velvet cathode. The carbon fiber array cathode is constructed by inserting bunches of carbon fibers into the cylindrical surface of the cathode. In experiment, the diode base pressure is maintained at 1×10^（-2） Pa–2×10^（-2） Pa, and the diode is driven by a compact pulsed power system which can provide a diode voltage of about 100 kV and pulse duration of about 30 ns at a repetition rate of tens of Hz.Real-time pressure data are measured by a magnetron gauge. Under the similar conditions, the experimental results show that the outgassing rate of the carbon fiber array cathode is an order smaller than that of the velvet cathode and that this carbon fiber array cathode has better shot-to-shot stability than the velvet cathode. Hence, this carbon fiber array cathode is demonstrated to be a promising cathode for the radial diode, which can be used in magnetically insulated transmission line oscillator（MILO） and relativistic magnetron（RM）.