Particle-in-Cell Simulation and Experimental Setup of a Crossed-Field Amplifier

A 925 MHz, slow wave meander line crossed-field amplifier (CF A) structure was designed and developed using CST Microwave Studio. The structure has a phase velocity retardation of 24. The high frequency solver shows that the structure has a S11 of -40 dB at 925 MHz. For the PIC simulation, an already developed crossed field structure was used which includes a sole, a segmented collector, two end hats, and an injected electron source. PIC simulation shows that for a sole voltage of -3k V, a magnetic field of 150 G, an injected current of 150 mA, and an RF input power of 15 W, the gain of the structure was 10 dB. Also, experimental studies with a previously developed CF A structure are ongoing. This CF A structure was designed to operate at 600 MHz. An injected beam current of up to 60 mA using gated field emission arrays in an 8 die configuration has been tested. However, no gain was observed so far. Further experiments will be carried out using a higher injected beam current.