High-current electron beam coupling to hybrid waveguide and plasma modes in a dielectric Cherenkov maser with a plasma layer

The linear theory of a dielectric Cherenkov maser with a plasma layer has been developed. The dispersion relation has been derived for the model of infinitely thin, fully magnetized, monoenergetic hollow electron beam, in the axisymmetric case. The results of the numerical solution of the dispersion relation and the analysis of the beam coupling to hybrid waves, both hybrid waveguide and hybrid plasma modes, are presented. For the hybrid waveguide mode, spatial growth rate dependences on frequency at different plasma densities demonstrate improvement in gain for moderate densities, but strong shifting the amplification band and narrowing the bandwidth. For the hybrid plasma mode, the case of mildly relativistic, 200–250 keV beams is of interest, so that the wave phase velocity is just slightly greater than the speed of light in a dielectric medium. It has been shown that depending on beam and plasma parameters, the hybrid plasma mode can be separated from the hybrid waveguide mode, or be coupled to it through the beam resulting in strong gain increase, or exhibit a flat gain vs frequency dependence over a very broad band. The parameters, at which the −3 dB bandwidth calculated for 30 dB peak gain exceeds an octave, have been found.