AES, Medford, New York, USA
CENBG, Gradignan, France
CEA, LE BARP cedex, France
Many applications of THz radiation remain impractical or impossible due to an absence of compact sources with sufficient power. A source where the interaction occurs between an annular electron beam and a cylindrical grating is capable of generating high THz power in a very compact package. The strong beam bunching generates significant power at the fundamental frequency and harmonics. A collaboration between Advanced Energy Systems and CEA/CESTA has been ongoing in performing proof-of-principle tests on cylindrical grating configurations producing millimeter wave radiation. First lasing was achieved in such a device. Further experiments performed with a 6 mm period grating produced fundamental power at 15 GHz, second harmonic power at 30 GHz and although not measured, simulations show meaningful third harmonic power at 45 GHz. Comparison with simulations shows very good agreement and high conversion efficiency. Planned experiments will increase the frequency of operation to 100 GHz and beyond. Ongoing simulations indicate excellent performance for a device operating at a fundamental frequency of 220 GHz with realistic beam parameters at 10 kV and simple extraction of the mode.
