Generation of High Peak and High Average Power Subnanosecond-Width 10-GHz Microwave Pulses

Excitation of 10-GHz gigawatt-range radiation pulses ~ 1 ns long in relativistic backward-wave oscillators with an elongated periodic slow-wave system has been studied. Accelerators based on a compact pulsed-periodic high-voltage generator type SINUS-160 and a generator employing an inductive energy storage, a semiconductor opening switch and a peaking hydrogen-filled spark gap have been developed for formation of high-current electron beams (particles having an energy of 350–600 keV, a current of 3–5 kA and a length of 4–7 ns) at repetition frequencies of (100– 700) p.p.s. in bursts 1 s long or more. Optimization of the regime of interaction between fields and particles provided an average power of microwave radiation in the burst mode of up to 2.5 kW at the focusing magnetic field (~ 0.6 T) below the cyclotron resonance region.