Investigation of 0.38 THz backward-wave oscillator based on slotted sine waveguide and pencil electron beam

A novel backward wave oscillator (BWO) is presented by utilizing a slotted sine waveguide with a pencil electron beam to produce the high power terahertz wave. The high frequency characteristics including dispersion properties, interaction impedances, and transmission characteristics of the slotted sine waveguide are analyzed in detail. The high frequency system including the output coupler, slow wave structure (SWS), and reflector are designed properly. A 3-D particle-in-cell mode is applied to predict the device performance of the BWO based on the novel SWS. The investigation results demonstrate that this device can generate over 8.05 W output power in the frequency range of 363.4-383.8 GHz by using a 30 mA pencil electron beam and adjusting the beam voltage from 20 kV to 32 kV. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.