EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY OF A MEGAWATT 200-300 GHZ GYROTRON OSCILLATOR

A detailed experimental study is presented of a pulsed megawatt gyrotron oscillator operating in the 200-300 GHz range, whose design is consistent with continuous operation for electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) of fusion plasmas. Two different radii beams produced by magnetron injection guns (MIG's) were used to excite the cylindrical waveguide cavity. The emission was found experimentally to be single mode, single frequency with a single rotation, which can be mode converted for transmission. The highest poser reached with the larger radius electron beam was 1.2 MW at 230 GHz in the TE34,6 mode with an efficiency of 20% and beam parameters of 59 A and 100 kV. The highest power reached with the smaller radius electron beam was 0.78 MW at 280 GHz in the TE25,13 mode with an efficiency of 17% and beam parameters of 51 A and 92 kV. The smaller radius beam gave a peak efficiency of 18% at 0.72 MW, 290 GHz in the TE25,14 mode. Efficiencies obtained in this experiment are about half that of less highly overmoded gyrotrons. Analysis of the experiment suggests that the low efficiency is primarily caused by azimuthal mode competition, in agreement with multimode theory for a tapered cavity. These experimental results show that megawatt power levels can be generated in continuous wave (cw) gyrotron oscillators at 200-300 GHz with efficiencies approaching 20%.