Gyrotron-based millimeter-wave beams and their use in material processing

Summary form only given, as follows. Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have been utilizing quasi-optical millimeter-wavelength microwave beams for materials processing applications over the past several years. We have recently added a multi-mode cavity gyrotron-based 30 GHz processing system produced by the Institute of Applied Science, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. The new system allows us to process materials in a large-volume uniform 30 GHz microwave field. The system includes a processing chamber which can be evacuated or pressurized to maintain a controlled environment during the processing cycle and is computer controlled to allow experiments to be precisely repeated. The ability to apply uniformly intense microwave fields to large samples or large quantities of small samples under controlled environmental conditions gives our group a unique capability to study materials properties achievable only through microwave processing techniques. An overview of the present status of our gyrotron based facilities is presented along with a detailed description of the new multi-mode gyrotron system.