Photonic Crystal as a Section of Modulation and Interaction With a Virtual Cathode in Two-Section Vircator

Abstract

We propose and investigate the new scheme of a two-section vircator with a photonic crystal (PC) as a section of modulation and interaction with a virtual cathode (VC). The model demonstrates the high stability of the generation frequency for such type of devices and the electronic efficiency of the order of 12.8%. We achieve this result by implementing a feedback mechanism that stabilizes the frequency and increases the generation efficiency. We show that the primary generation mechanism in the proposed scheme is based on the preliminary modulation of a beam passing through the PC and forming a VC. The model is also characterized by distributed feedback inside the PC, which ensures the effective interaction of a VC with the field in the PC due to spatial synchronism. This regime arises when the beam current lies between the critical currents for each of the sections. The advantages of the proposed scheme include operating in a wide range of values of the beam energy and current, relative design simplicity, and scalability.