The intense electron-beam-driven elementary monotron

The basic monotron is an electron-beam driven single-cavity, single-pass regenerative oscillator. When driven by an intense, relativistic electron beam they are potentially important sources of intense microwave radiation. Operating efficiency in the 12-25% range appears to be possible in principle and thus considerable power can be extracted from a pulse-power-driven monotron. A general theory of the linear and nonlinear characteristics of this device has been developed. Based on single-particle dynamics and the complex version of Poynting's theorem the theory is capable of predicting the gain, the saturation level, the efficiency and the sensitivity of performance-to-beam quality for any source of the monotron type. Although based on single-particle dynamics, the theory is applicable in the intense beam limit since the devices have a short length. Further, if required, the effects of beam self-fields and space charge can be included. An outline of the theory and application to specific examples are presented