A Continuously Tunable Ka-Band Gyrotron

An experimental study was carried out to test the concept of using a gyrotron with a tapered circuit in a uniform magnetic field as a high-power tunable source of millimeter-wave radiation. It was demonstrated that the device can be used as either an oscillator or an amplifier with the operating frequency tunable by varying the magnetic field. In the oscillator mode, the tube produced a peak output power of 500-750 W with the frequency continuously tunable from 30 to 39 GHz. As an amplifier mode, the tube demonstrated an electronic gain of ~23 dB at a magnetically tunable center frequency with an instantaneous bandwidth of ~5 percent. The stability characteristics of the amplifier were also investigated.