Suppression of higher mode excitation in a high gain relativistic klystron amplifier

Suppressing higher mode excitation is very important in the high gain relativistic klystron amplifier because higher mode can seriously degrade klystron performance and cause pulse shortening. The mechanism of higher mode self-excitation is explored in the PIC simulation, and it is shown the coupling between cavities is the main cause of higher mode self-excitation. The coupling forms the positive feedback loop for higher mode to be excited just like that in the oscillator circuit. The formula for startup current of higher mode self-excitation is developed based on the coupling between cavities. And the corresponding methods are taken to avoid higher mode self-excitation. Finally, mode control is realized in the RKA with output power up to 1.02 GW when driven power is only few kilowatts. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3680622]