Use of double-stream relativistic electron beams in tree-electron lasers

Abstract

The two-stream instability problem has been studied in plasma physics for over 30 years and has been used to generate microwaves of centimeter wavelengths. The device, independently devised and constructed by Haeff¹ and Pierce,² was called an electron wave tube or two-stream amplifier and consists of two low-energy electron streams interacting to give an increasing space-charge wave without field supporting structure. The latter fact is clearly an advantage for submillimeter and shorter wavelength sources, since conventional microwave devices require circuit elements whose dimensions are of the order of the generated wavelength.