Overview on recent progress in magnetron injection gun theory and design for high power gyrotrons

¹ IHM, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), D-76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
² Swiss Plasma Center (SPC), EPFL, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
³ Thales Electron Devices (TED), Velizy, France
⁴ National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), GR-15773 Athens, Greece

^* e-mail: ioannis.pagonakis@kit.edu

Published online: 25 March 2019

Abstract

The magnetron injection gun (MIG) is one of the most critical subcomponents in gyrotrons. The electron beam, which has the primary role on the gyrotron operation, is generated and configured at this part of the tube. The electron beam properties determine the excitation mode in the cavity, the power of the generated microwaves and the gyrotron efficiency. The operation of MIGs could be influenced by several factors such as trapped electrons, manufacturing tolerances, roughness of the emitter ring, emitter temperature inhomogeneity, electron beam neutralization effect, etc. The influence of many of these factors on the electron beam quality has been systematically investigated during the last years. Several novelties have been proposed in order to limit the influence of these factors on the gyrotron operation. In particular, new design criteria have been proposed for the suppression of electron trapping mechanisms, a new type of the emitter ring has been proposed to minimize the influence of the manufacturing tolerances and edge effects on the beam quality, alternative MIG design approaches have been proposed, etc. An overview of all these works will be presented here.