Mode Competition in a Large-Orbit Coaxial-
Waveguide CARM Amplifier
Shi-Chang Zhang
Institute of Photoelectronics, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu SC610031, P. R. China
sczhang@home.swjtu.edu.cn
Abstract-Dispersion diagrams and nonlinear simulation
indicate the suppression of the low-order mode competition in the
CARM operation of a higher-order mode such as TE5, 1 mode by
properly employing a large-orbit electron beam.
I. INTRODUCTION
Recently, a large-orbit coaxial-structure CARM was
proposed [1], wherein the rf structure is a coaxial waveguide or
cavity, a large-orbit electron beam encircles the axis of the
coaxial structure, and the parameters are settled in the CARM
instability domain. This proposal may have potential to be
developed into a kind of high-power microwave radiation
sources. As is pointed out by many authors, parasitic modes are
easily excited in a small-orbit gyro-TWT amplifier, for
example, in the TE1,1-mode gyro-traveling-wave amplifier
experiment the oscillation of the parasitic mode TE2,1,1 was
observed, special techniques must be adopted to suppress the
spurious oscillations [2]. Therefore, a key issue to the proposal
of a large-orbit coaxial-structure CARM amplifier is whether
the mode competition is serious or not. This paper will show
the efficient suppression of the low-order mode competition in
the CARM amplifier operation of a higher-order mode such as
TE5, 1 mode by properly employing a large-orbit electron beam.
II. QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
In a small-orbit gyro-device, each waveguide mode felt by
the small-orbit electrons is a superposition of infinite cyclotron
harmonics ( l = 1, 2," ):
∞
∑J
j ( m −l )ϕ g + jlθ
Ψ mn ( R, ϕ ) = m− l (kc Rg ) J l (kc rL )e
l =−∞
where J m is the first kind of Bessel function of order m , Rg , ϕ g
are the coordinates of the electron’s guiding center, and rL ,θ
are the electron’s cyclotron radius and cyclotron angle,
respectively. Attention should be paid that for a small-orbit
gyro-device, the radial distance of the guiding center to the
origin, Rg , is much greater than the cyclotron radius, rL , that is,
Rg  rL , and so the quantity J m−l (kc Rg ) is absolutely un-negligible
even when m ≠ l . This mathematical meaning is of importance
in physics: all the l-th cyclotron harmonics of the modes with
different azimuthal-mode index m may efficiently interact with
the electron beam, because they not only satisfy the same
cyclotron resonance condition ω − kz vz 0 − lωc ≈ 0 but also have
enough strength. For example, if the device is settled in
operation at the fundamental cyclotron harmonic ( l = 1 ) of the
lowest order mode TE1,1, ( ω − kz vz 0 − ωc ≈ 0 ,i.e., l = 1 ), then other
modes (TE2,1, TE3,1 ….) may be excited ， because their
fundamental cyclotron harmonics ( l = 1 ) satisfy the same
cyclotron resonance condition ( ω − kz vz 0 − ωc ≈ 0 ,i.e., l = 1 ).
Therefore, there are multi-intersecting points of the waveguide
mode ω 2 / c 2 − kz 2 − kc2 ≅ 0 with the electron cyclotron
mode ω − kz vz 0 − lωc ≅ 0 , and strong backward wave could be
excited at the lower intersecting points for the higher-order
cyclotron harmonics. For example, in a small-orbit gyro-TWT
amplifier experiment, even if the device operated at the
fundamental cyclotron harmonic ( l =1) of the lowest-order
mode TE1,1 with a grazing condition, there existed other
intersecting points of the second cyclotron harmonic ( l =2)
with the TE1,1 mode and the TE2,1 mode (seeing the intersecting
points 1, 2, 4, and 5 of Fig.1 in [2]). That is one of the reasons
that in small-orbit gyro-devices the spurious oscillating is
easily excited and the mode competition is always serious.
However, situation changes in a large-orbit gyro-device. If
the large-orbit electron beam is ideal, that is, the guiding
centers of the electrons are located at the coordinates origin
( Rg = 0 ), then, according to the property of Bessel function
1
J m−l (kc Rg = 0) = 
m=l
(2)
0 m≠l
only one cyclotron harmonic with l = m survives and other
cyclotron harmonics vanish in (1). In this case the cyclotron
harmonic turns out to be the mode itself, and the non-working
modes can not be efficiently excited because they do not
satisfy the cyclotron resonance condition. Of course, if the
large-orbit electron beam is non-ideal, that is, the guiding
(1) centers of the electrons shift from the waveguide axis ( Rg ≠ 0 )
and the electron beam gets guiding-center spread, there must
exist cyclotron harmonics according to (1). However, on sharp
contrary to the situation in a small-orbit gyro-device ( Rg  rL ),
in large-orbit gyro-device the cyclotron radius rL is much
greater than the guiding-center shift from the axis ( Rg ), that is,
Rg  rL holds. Therefore, according to the property of Bessel
function (2), the cyclotron harmonics with l ≠ m are weak and
their effect is trivial since the argument kc Rg in J m−l (kc Rg ) is
small. Therefore, as far as the competing modes, either the
cyclotron harmonics with l ≠ m are too weak, or those with
l = m do not match the cyclotron resonance condition to be
selected for the operation mode. It is the reason that the mode
competition in large-orbit gyro-devices is not as serious as in
small-orbit gyro-devices. For example, if the operation mode is
chosen to be TE5,1 mode and the cyclotron resonance condition
is settled in ω − k z vz 0 − 5ωc ≈ 0 , although the 5-th cyclotron
harmonics of the competing modes TE4,1, TE3,1, TE2,1, TE1,1
and TE0,1 can match the cyclotron resonance condition, their
effect is still trivial because these harmonics are too weak.
III. QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
We take TE5, 1 mode as example to examine the qualitative
analysis, were the beam radius is 7.3 mm, the axial magneto-
should have little influence on the power due to the use of a
large-orbit electron beam. The nonlinear simulation shown in
Fig. 3 confirms this conclusion. The power is not sensitive to
the guiding-center spread, which is substantially different from
the effect of the velocity spread,.
In summary, the mode competition resulting from the
harmonics in CARM amplifier might be efficiently suppressed
by properly employing a large-orbit electron beam and a
coaxial structure.
10
6

static field is 3132 G, the outer-wall and inner-rod radii are 10

5
TE5,1 Mode
respectively 11.76 and 1.46 mm, the wave frequency is 35 4
10
GHz with an input power of 0.1 W, the electron beam has an 3 TE4,1 Mode

Power (W)
10
energy of 700 keV and a current of 50A with transverse
velocity 0.5664c and longitudinal velocity 0.7079 c, where c is 10
2

the light spreed in vacuum. 10

1

0
10
-1
10
50 5 0 20 40 60 80 100
45 z (cm)
TE5,1 TE4,1
40 4
35 Fig.2 Power evolution of the operating mode TE5,1 and the
Growth Rate (10 s )
-1

30 3 competing mode TE4,1 along the axial position in a large-orbit

8

coaxial-structure CARM amplifier, where the parameters are fixed

f (GHz)

25 f-1 on the same in Fig. 1.

20 2
15 slow wave
regions
10 1
6
f-2
5 s-1
s-2 Rg-spread=0
0 0 5
-1000 -800 -600 -400 -200 0 200 400 600 800 1000
-1 Rg-spread=10 %
kz (m ) 4
Power (MW)

3
Fig.1. Dispersion diagram of the operating mode TE51 mode and the
competing modes TE41, TE31, TE21, TE11, and TE01, where only the
2
operating mode gets efficient growth rate at the working point shown in the
v-spread=2%
contents. tapered
1

Figure 1 shows the dispersion diagrams of the operating 0

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
mode TE51 as well as the lower modes TE41, TE31, TE21, TE11, z (cm)
and TE01, respectively. The forward-wave TE51 and TE41
modes obtain growth rate and there is no any backward-wave Fig.3 Power evolution along the axial position for various guiding-
growing in the fast wave regions for all the modes. However, center spreads in the case that the operating magnetic field is linearly
tapered at z 0 =90 cm with a slope of -0.003, where the velocity
the growth rate of the competing mode TE41 is trivial and only spread is 2%, and the other parameters are the same as those in Fig.
the operating mode TE51 is efficiently amplified at the selected 1.
working point.
Figure 2 displays the nonlinear simulation of the power ACKNOWLEDGMENT
versus the axial position for TE51 and TE41 modes. It can be The work is supported by the NSFC under Grant 60471038.
seen, indeed, that the power level of the competing mode TE41
is lower than that of the operating mode TE51 by 105, which is REFERENCES
in agreement with the result obtained from the dispersion [1] S.-C. Zhang and M. Thumm, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 88, 033514, 2006.
diagrams shown in Fig.1. [2] K.R. Chu, H.Y. Chen, C.L. Huang, T.H. Chang, L.R. Barnett, S.H. Chen,
T.T. Yang, and D.J. Dialetis, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 27, p.391,1999.
As is analyzed in Section II, the guiding-center spread,
which results from the guiding-center shift of the electrons,