Design study of a plasma-loaded CRM using TPD-II machine

Design study of an experiment for plasma-loaded cyclotron resonance maser (CRM) utilizing TPD-II Machine at NIFS, Japan is described in some detail. The principle of gyrotrons has been believed the CRM instability. However, all the existing linear theories of CRM instability include unphysical modes unstable at infinite values of axial wavenumber that can never be observed experimentally. To overcome the difficulty, we derive and analyze numerically an exact linear dispersion relation of a large orbit electron beam for CRM, and removed the unphysical modes. However, the relation is found to include two principles of cyclotron emission with oscillation frequencies above and below the branch of fast electron cyclotron wave. The former is CRM instability, and the latter is named Chrenkov instability in the azimuthal direction (CIAD). It is noted that the CIAD we found remains only a proposal of a new mechanism for cyclotron emission until the physical existence is verified experimentally. To verify the CIAD, the design study of a plasma-loaded CRM has been carried out. The apparatus consists of two portions installed in the TPD-II: A pair of helical wiggler windings to create a mono-energetic beam with 15 keV and pitch factor Vθ/Vz≥1, and microwave circuits including a cylindrical TE011 mode cavity with resonant frequency 3.45 GHz. For high plasma density n≥1.5x1011 cm-3 from TPD-II, the CRM instability may be suppressed and the CIAD will take turn. The present experimental study contributes to a deeper understanding and a widened future prospect in gyrotron physics. (author)