Mode Selection and Coaxial Cavity Design for a 4-MW 170-GHz Gyrotron, Including Thermal Aspects

Gyrotron oscillators are millimeter wave sources, capable of reaching megawatt power levels. Such high RF power is required for electron cyclotron resonance heating and current drive systems for current and future nuclear fusion facilities. With total heating system powers in the range up to about 100 MW, these installations call for unit powers above 1 M W, to reduce cost and complexity of the complete heating system. In this paper, a mode selection process for a 4-MW 170-GHz coaxial-cavity gyrotron is presented and stable operating parameters are elaborated. The employed formalism, based on normalized variables, suggests one mode, namely the TE_-52,31, which is sufficiently separated from its competitors and supports an advanced two-beam quasi-optical mode converter . Through the utilization of time-dependent and self-consistent approaches, a coaxial cavity is optimized and stable single-mode operation at 4.35 MW of generated output power with an interaction efficiency of 33% is predicted. This paper discusses the mode selection process under consideration of realistic technical limitations, optimization of the cavity for stable operation with a pure output mode, and finally thermo-mechanical calculations on cavity cooling and surface temperature.