A Klystron is a vacuum tube used for generation/amplification of microwaves.

An electron beam is produced by oxide coated indirectly heated cathode and is focussed and
accelerated by focussing electrode.
This beam is transmitted through a glass tube. The input cavity where the beam enters the glass tube
is called buncher.
As electrons move ahead they see an accelerating field for half cycle and retarding field for the other
half cycle.
Therefore, some electrons are accelerated and some are retarded. This process is called velocity
modulation.
The velocity modulation causes bunching of electrons. This bunching effect converts velocity
modulation into density modulation of beam.
The input is fed at buncher cavity and output is taken at catcher cavity.
In a two cavity klystron only buncher and catcher cavity are used. In multi cavity klystron one or more
intermediate cavities are also used.
The features of a multicavity klystron are :

1. Frequency range - 0.25 GHz to 100 GHz

2. Power output - 10 kW to several hundred kW
3. Power gain - 60 dB (nominal value)
4. Efficiency - about 40%.
A multicavity klystron is used in UHF TV transmitters, Radar transmitter and satellite communication

In a klystron the resonant structure limits the bandwidth.

A TWT is a broadband device. Its main components are electron gun (to produce the electron beam)
and a structure supporting the slow electromagnetic wave.
The velocity of wave propagation along the helix structure is less than velocity of light.
The beam and wave travel along the structure at the same speed.

Thus interaction occurs between beam and wave and the beam delivers energy to the RF wave.
Therefore the signal gets strengthened and amplified output is delivered at the other end of tube.
The main features of TWT are :
1. Frequency range - 0.5 GHz to 90 GHz
2. Power output - 5 mW at low frequencies(less than 20 GHz) 250 kW (continuous wave) at 3 GHz 10
MW (pulsed) at 3 GHz
3. Efficiency - about 5 to 20%
4. Noise - about 5 dB for low power TWT 25 dB for high power TWT
TWT is used as RF amplifier in broadband microwave receivers, repeater amplifier in broad band
communication systems, communication satellites etc.

backward wave oscillator

It is somewhat similar to TWT and can deliver microwave power over a wide frequency band.
It has an electron gun and a helix structure. However the interaction between electron beam and RF
wave is different than in TWT.
The growing RF wave travels in opposite direction to the electron beam.
The frequency of wave can be changed by changing the voltage which controls the beam velocity.
Moreover the amplitude of oscillations can be decreased continuously to zero by changing the beam
current.
It features are:
1. Frequency range - 1 GHz to 1000 GHz.
2. Power output - 10 mV to 150 mW (continuous wave) 250kW (pulsed).
It is used as signal source in transmitters and instruments.

Some applications require dual polarization capability. Circular waveguide has this capability.

These analysis uses cylindrical coordinates.

In circular waveguide TE11 mode has the lowest cut off frequency and is the dominant mode.
If D is diameter of waveguide
c = 1.706 D for TE11 mode
c = 1.029 D for TE21 mode
c = 0.82 D for TE01 mode
c = 1.306 D for TM01 mode.