Prospects for development of powerful, highly efficient, relativistic gyrodevices

For various applications the required parameters of sources of powerful microwave radiation lie far beyond the capabilities of existing tubes. This provokes an interest in reconsidering basic principles of relevant microwave sources in order to search for alternative concepts in their development. One of the most promising devices in the short-wavelength region of microwaves is the cyclotron resonance maser (CRM). During the last decade, two important varieties of CRMs have been distinguished, namely, gyrotrons, which operate at frequencies close to cut-off, and cyclotron autoresonance masers (CARMs), which operate at frequencies far from cut-off. When the axial phase velocity of the wave in properly adjusted to the beam voltage and electron pitch-ratio, the efficiency of relativistic CRMs may be high (≥50%). The method of optimizing efficiency based on a partial compensation of the shift in the relativistic electron cyclotron frequency by the change in the Doppler term can be, in principle, accompanied by a corresponding profiling of the external magnetic field and/or the wave phase velocity in a slightly irregular waveguide. These methods can be used in such relativistic CRMs as relativistic gyrotrons, gyroklystrons, gyro-traveling-wave-tubes and gyrotwistrons. The most important point is their sensitivity to a spread in electron parameters. As the beam voltage grows, the operation becomes more sensitive. However, at relatively low voltages such devices are quite tolerant to electron velocity spread