Chaos and oscillations in a loaded plasma-filled diode

A plasma-filled diode can be used as a model for the interaction space in a virtual cathode oscillator (VCO) (vircator), It is shown that depending on the separation of the electrodes (x) over cap (L), the initial ion/electron ratio <(<alpha>)over cap>, and the load (Z) over cap (l), the system may exhibit a cascade of bifurcations leading to chaos. The positioning and extent of chaos can be controlled by a judicious choice of the above parameters. It is also shown that for a range of values of (x) over cap (L), <(<alpha>)over cap>, and (Z) over cap (l) the system is capable of generating oscillations of a well-defined frequency, For other ranges, it reaches a stable state or becomes unstable.