Experimental investigation of an S-band triple cavity oscillator

The triple cavity oscillator (Tritron) is an improved high power microwave (HPM) oscillator from the dual cavity oscillator (Bitron), in which an intermediate cavity is introduced to enhance the beam modulation depth and improve the conversion efficiency by optimizing the phase between the modulated beam and the field in the intermediate cavity. There are only three cavities in the device, which makes it fit for developing compact HPM source. In this paper, an S-band Tritron is proposed and investigated experimentally. By means of adjusting the axial position of the support posts, the self-oscillation phenomenon observed in the experiment is efficiently suppressed without affecting the characteristics of the working mode. An output power of 1.8GW with the pulse width of 46ns and the frequency of 2.46GHz is obtained in the experiment under the condition of the 0.7T guiding magnetic field, and the axial length of the interaction region is only 11cm.