Effect of electron beam misalignments on the gyrotron efficiency

The theory describing the operation of gyrotrons with tilted and shifted electron beams has been developed. Effects of the tilt and shift are studied for a 1 MW, 170 GHz gyrotron, which is presently under development in Europe for electron cyclotron resonance plasma heating and current drive in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. It is shown that one should expect significant deterioration of gyrotron operation in such gyrotrons when the tilt angle exceeds 0.4°–0.5° and the parallel shift of the beam axis with respect to the axis of a microwave circuit is larger than 0.4–0.5 mm. At the same time, simultaneous tilting and shifting in a proper manner can mitigate this deteriorating effect