Progress in relativistic pulsed power microwave sources

One of the important applications of pulsed power is to pulsed electron beam production for the generation of high power microwave and millimetre-wave pulses. In order to generate a high current electron beam, a high voltage (>100 kV) is usually needed and this in turn leads to the electrons being at least mildly relativistic. Some of the microwave devices depend inherently on relativistic effects, whereas others operate with relativistic electrons, but do not inherently require relativistic effects to function. The authors report progress on repetitively pulsed, high power, relativistic gyrotrons and related devices at Strathclyde University