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Mode Excitation in Gyrotrons With Triode-Type Electron Guns

Article in IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices · January 2022

DOI: 10.1109/TED.2021.3137760

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 X. Chen et al.: Mode excitation in gyrotrons with triode-type electron guns
Mode excitation in gyrotrons with triode-type
electron guns
Xianfei Chen, Gregory S. Nusinovich, Fellow, IEEE, Olgierd Dumbrajs, Senior Member, IEEE,
Houxiu Xiao*, Xiaotao Han, Donghui Xia, Tao Peng
Abstract—Gyrotrons operating in high-order modes
often suffer from severe mode competition. For the
selective excitation of the desired mode, the triode-type
electron guns are often used. In the case of triode-type
guns, where the beam voltage and the mod-anode voltage
can be varied independently, the mode excitation during
the startup process is studied in this paper by using a
generalized approach. The term ‘generalized approach’
means that the obtained results can be valid for gyrotrons
operating at arbitrary voltages and in any mode. The
conditions for excitation of the modes are analyzed for
different types of startup scenarios. The goal of the study
is to find such relations between the beam and mod-anode
voltages during the gyrotron start-up that only the desired
mode will be excited.
It is shown that by using a specific triode-type startup
scenario with a proper timing for the rise of the mod-anode
voltage with respect to the beam voltage, the initial
excitation of the desired mode can be realized in the cases
of practically any mode density. The mode interaction in
such a case is studied; also, the dependences of the results
on the timing relation between the two voltages and on the
voltage rise speed are considered. This paper also contains
the numerical analysis of a specific MW gyrotron with a
triode-type gun.
Index Terms—gyrotron, start-up scenario, mode interaction
I. Introduction
G YROTRONS are fast-wave electron devices that can
produce megawatt (MW) level electromagnetic radiation
of millimeter and sub-millimeter-waves in the long-pulsed and
continuous-wave (CW) regime [1]–[4]. In the development of
high-power gyrotrons for fusion applications, there is a growing
interest in increasing the power and the frequency (for example,
This work was supported in part by the National Key Research and
Development Program of China under Grant No. 2016YFA0401703
and 2016YFA0401701, the Program for HUST Academic Frontier
Youth Team (No. 2017QYTD12), and the Fundamental Research
Funds for the Central Universities under Grant No. 2019kfyXKJC017.
(Corresponding authors: Houxiu Xiao.)
Xianfei Chen, Houxiu Xiao, Xiaotao Han, and Tao Peng are with
the Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center, Huazhong University
of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China (e-mail: chenxian
fei@hust.edu.cn; xiaohouxiu@hust.edu.cn; xthan@hust.edu.cn; peng
tao@mail.hust.edu.cn;).
Gregory S. Nusinovich is with the Institute for Research in
Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park,
MD 20742 USA (e-mail: gregoryn@glue.umd.edu).
Olgierd Dumbrajs is with the Institute of Solid State Physics,
University of Latvia, Riga LV-1063, Latvia (e-mail: olgertsd@cfi.lu.lv).
Donghui Xia is with the International Joint Research Laboratory of
Magnetic Confinement Fusion and Plasma Physics, Huazhong
University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China (e-mail:
xiadh@hust.edu.cn;)
9
for the tokamak DEMO of the next generation a 2MW, 240GHz
unit power gyrotron is under consideration [5]). The power
level of gyrotrons is restricted by ohmic losses dissipated in the
cavity wall, which may cause cavity overheating. For keeping
the ohmic heating within the tolerant level it is necessary to
increase the dimensions of the interaction space, i.e. to develop
gyrotrons operating in higher-order modes with a denser
spectrum [4]–[6]. This makes important the analysis of mode
excitation and interaction [7].
For gyrotrons operating in high-order modes, it is
important to choose a proper startup scenario that provides the
selective excitation of the desired mode while avoiding the
excitation of parasitic modes [8]–[11]. In gyrotrons operating
in the CW regime, such startup scenarios can be realized by
varying the magnetic field, the beam current, and the beam and
anode voltages [8]–[12]. However, in pulsed regimes,
practically only the voltages can be varied since other
parameters are too difficult to vary fast enough. Generally, two
kinds of magnetron guns are used to generate the helical
electron beams: the diode-type guns and the triode-type
guns [11]. In the former case, an electron beam is formed and
propagates in one nonuniform pipe, different parts of which
play the roles of the anode and the cavity, so the anode and the
cavity have the same potential. In the triode-type guns, the
anode, also known as the modulating anode (mod-anode), is
separated from the cavity, so it may have a different potential
from the cavity. By varying the mod-anode voltage one can
modulate the electric field on the cathode and vary the orbital-
to-axial electron velocity ratio.
In diode-type electron guns, the voltage between the
cathode and the mod-anode Vm = Vanode  Vcath (hereinafter
referred to as the mod-anode voltage) is the same as the beam
voltage (Vb = Vcavity  Vcath). For gyrotrons operating in high-
order modes with close-frequency parasites, such a startup
scenario, first, leads to the excitation of a high-frequency (HF)
parasitic mode [13, 14]. After the voltage passes through the
region of operation in this parasitic mode, depending on the
mode density, either the desired or the low-frequency (LF)
parasitic mode can be excited [14]. So, triode-type electron
guns are often used which provide more flexible scenarios for
the selective excitation of the desired mode [8–10], [15].
In triode-type electrons guns, the typical startup scenario
is often used, where the beam voltage is first applied and
reaches its final value, and then the mod-anode voltage starts to
rise. With such a scenario, the HF parasitic mode can be
avoided. However, the processes of mode excitation during the
mod-anode voltage rise depend on the relation between the
excitation regions of the desired and the LF parasitic mode.
When for achieving high efficiency the operating point is in the
hard excitation zone of the desired mode, the LF parasitic mode
 X. Chen et al.: Mode excitation in gyrotrons with triode-type electron guns
will be excited first. This parasitic mode may suppress the
excitation of the desired operating mode.
As was proposed in [8] and later studied in [15], one can
avoid excitation of both the high- and low-frequency parasitic
modes, if the mod-anode voltage starts rising before the beam
voltage reaches its final value. By varying the timing of the
mod-anode voltage rise with respect to the beam voltage, a
startup scenario between the diode-type and the typical triode-
type ones can be realized where the self-excitation conditions
for the desired central mode can be met much earlier than for
the parasitic modes. Such a case is definitely the most favorable
because excitation of parasitic modes (even for a short time) can
be dangerous for the detectors in the receiving channels for
diagnostics of radiation (e.g., Michelson interferometers,
reflectometers, infrared cameras, etc. [16]).
Since the relation of self-excitation conditions depends on
the external magnetic field and on the separation between the
mode frequencies, the processes during this start-up scenario
deserve serious investigation. The mode interaction during the
startup process of the voltages has been studied for gyrotrons
with diode and triode type electron guns in many papers (see,
e.g., [16–18]). However, most of these studies were focused on
specific gyrotrons. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the
mode excitation and interaction in gyrotrons with triode-type
electron guns by using a generalized approach. The goal is to
show how the variation of voltages can be used to achieve the
selective excitation of only the highly efficient desired mode.
This paper is organized as follows. In Section II, the
generalized representation of gyrotron parameters during
voltage startup is introduced, and the influence of timing
relation between the voltages on the selective excitation of the
desired mode is discussed. In Section III, simulation results of
the study of mode interaction in the cases of a selective triode-
type scenario with optimal timing of the mod-anode voltage rise
are presented. These results can promote the gyrotron operation
to rather high mode densities. In Section IV, numerical
examples of mode interaction in realistic gyrotrons are given.
In Section V, we discuss possible effects of the voltage rise
speed on the mode excitation in the case of the chosen start-up
scenario. Section VI summarizes the study.
II. MODE EXCITATION IN GYROTRONS
A. Gyrotron parameters and their dependence on
the voltages
In the framework of the generalized theory [11, 19], the
single-mode operation of a gyrotron can be characterized by
three normalized parameters representing the interaction length
(int), cyclotron resonance detuning () and the normalized
current (I0). Following the notations in [20, 11], these
normalized parameters can be defined as
 
  2 /  2 0    s 0  /  , (1)

 int   out   in   2 0 / 2  z 0  Lint / c ,  (2)
2
eI b  20s  3   ss 
z  out 2 
I0  8 QG 1 /  f  z   dz   
 . (3)
mc3 0 
0   2s s ! 
In (1)-(3), e is the electron charge, m is the electron rest mass, c
is the speed of light, 0 and z0 are the orbital and axial
9
components of electron velocities normalized to the speed of
light at the entrance to the interaction space, respectively; 0 is
the initial electron cyclotron frequency,  is the angular wave
frequency, s is the harmonic number, Lint is the interaction
length, the parameter G describes the coupling between the
beam and the resonator field, which is introduced in [1], [11];
z' = z/c is the normalized axial coordinate, and f (z') describes
the axial structure of the resonator field.
Since the velocity components and the relativistic electron
cyclotron frequency vary with the voltages, the generalized
representation of the voltage startup process can be realized by
taking into account the dependences of the normalized
parameters on the velocity components given in [13]:
 
  1/ ˆ2   fin   1  ˆ02  ,
    (4)
int 
  ˆ 2 / ˆ  z,  int, fin (5)
I0  ˆ  I 0, fin
2 s 3
. (6)
In (4)-(6), the variables with hats represent their values
related to their final values (marked with the subscript ‘fin’).
Assuming adiabatic compression of the electron beam in the
region between the cathode and the cavity and that the electron
kinetic energy is much smaller than the electron rest energy
eVb << mc2, the relative orbital velocity ˆ and total velocity
̂ 0 relate to the relative voltages as ˆ  Vˆm , ˆ0  Vˆb .
Correspondingly, the relative axial velocity can be given as
ˆ z   fin ˆ02  ˆ2 (αfin is the orbital-to-axial velocity ratio at
the final voltages); parameter ᾱ = (α2fin +1)/ α2fin characterizes
the influence of the pitch ratio on the cyclotron resonance
detuning during the voltage rise. Then, one can determine the
excitation conditions for arbitrary relative voltages.
B. Conditions for mode excitation
Linear and nonlinear processes in the beam-wave
interaction in gyrotrons can be characterized by the complex
susceptibility ˆ  ˆ   i ˆ  of the beam with respect to the
resonator field. We limit our treatment by consideration of the
imaginary part of the susceptibility ̂  , which relates, as shown
in [21, 11, 19], to the orbital efficiency  as
   F 2 ˆ  (7)
where F is the normalized field amplitude.
In the case of stationary oscillations of a single mode, the
power withdrawn by the wave from the electron beam is equal
to the power of microwave losses. In such a case, the amplitude
F can be determined by the balance equation, which can be
written in the most compact form as
I 0 ˆ   1 . (8)
When the current exceeds its starting value, the
oscillations start to grow from the noise level until they reach
the stationary state. As follows from (8), the start current can be
determined by the imaginary part of the linear susceptibility,
which can be defined [11, 19, 21, 22] as
2
    out
    s 
ˆ lin  f    e i  d  .
 (9)
    in
In the large-signal regime, the nonlinearity of the gyrotron
 X. Chen et al.: Mode excitation in gyrotrons with triode-type electron guns
can be described by the dependence of the imaginary part of the
susceptibility on the amplitude ˆ   F  [11]. There often exist
regimes of hard excitation where oscillations can remain stable
for beam current lower than the starting value, but oscillations
in such regimes can only be excited when the amplitude exceeds
a certain threshold value [13].
C. Selective excitation of the desired mode
Assume that the axial structure of the resonator field can
be approximated by the Gaussian distribution as
f ()=exp[(2 /  √3)2], and the interaction starts at in = 0
and ends at end = √3. The boundaries of the excitation zones
of modes with such axial structure are shown in Fig. 1 by the
colored solid (soft zone) and dashed lines (hard zone). The star
in Fig. 1 denotes the point of final voltages; The dash-dotted
lines show the traces of voltage startup in diode- (Trace I) and
triode-type (Trace II, III) electron guns. Here we consider
gyrotrons with a short interaction length fin = 11, which can
operate at a larger beam current I0,fin = 0.039 and
correspondingly higher power with the orbital efficiency of
 = 0.65 at 0,fin,opt = 0.57 [11] than gyrotrons with the optimal
parameters (fin = 17) for the maximum efficiency 0.72.
(Hereafter the subscript “fin” is omitted; all given parameters
correspond to their values at the nominal voltages.) Also, we
consider the equidistant modes and denote the cyclotron
resonance detuning for the central, low-frequency and high-
frequency parasitic modes as 0, LF and HF, respectively; the
difference of the detuning between the modes is denoted as
∆̃ = 0  LF = HF  0.
For selective excitation of the desired mode, it is necessary
to enter the soft excitation zone of this mode prior to such zones
of the parasitic modes. This can be realized in the CW regime
by temporarily increasing the magnetic field during the voltage
startup (see, e.g., Ref. [8, 12]). The increase in the magnetic
field reduces the detuning, e.g. from 0 = 0.57 to 0 = 0.32, so
that in the case of typical triode-type startup the trace II may
enter the soft excitation zone of the desired mode first and,
hence, it will be excited first. After the desired mode has
reached its stable oscillations, one can decrease the magnetic
field to drive the oscillations into the hard excitation zone to
obtain higher efficiency. However, such a method is viable only
in gyrotrons operating in the CW regimes.
In pulsed regimes of gyrotrons with triode-type guns, a
more effective approach for realizing the initial excitation of the
desired mode is to vary the timing relation between the mod-
anode and beam voltages. Suppose that the mod-anode voltage
is started when the beam voltage reached V̂b,st. When this event
takes place at the moment before the beam voltage has reached
Fig. 1. Boundaries of the soft (colored solid line) and hard (colored
dotted line) self-excitation zones for the desired mode 0 = 0.57, the
low- and high-frequency parasitic modes LF = 0.32, HF = 0.82 in the
plane of the normalzied beam votlage V̂b and mod-anode voltage V̂m.
9
Fig. 2. (a) Dependence of the optimal timing for the mod-anode
voltage rise V̂b,st,opt on the frequency detuning 0 of the desired mode;
(b) Dependences of the timing for the mod-anode voltage rise V̂b,st on
the frequency separation ∆̃ for Traces III-L and III-R at 0 = 0.57.
its final value (V̂b,st < 1), arbitrary traces can be achieved
between Trace I and Trace II as shown in Fig. 1. The most
favorable cases are the ones between Trace III-L and III-R.
Here, Trace III-L and III-R designate the startup traces that pass
through the intersection of the soft zone of the desired mode
with that of the HF parasitic mode (point “A”) and that of the
LF parasitic mode (point “B”), respectively. For traces on the
left from Trace III-L (or on the right from Trace III-R) the high-
(or low-) frequency parasitic mode will be excited first that may
suppress the desired mode.
It is always possible to find an optimal timing for the mod-
anode voltage rise V̂b,st,opt that has the startup trace (Trace III)
passing through the bottom of the desired modes (point “C”). In
this case, the desired mode can be excited first at an arbitrary
mode density. The dependence of this timing on the detuning of
the desired mode is shown in Fig. 2(a); For the optimal
operation at 0 = 0.57, the mod-anode voltage should start at
the moment V̂b,st,opt = 0.65.
As the mode density increases, the timing of mod-anode
voltage rise should be chosen more accurately. Figure 2(b)
shows the dependences of this timing V̂b,st on the frequency
separation ∆̃ for the Trace III-L and Trace III-R in the case of
optimal operation at0 = 0.57. As the order of an operating
mode becomes higher and, correspondingly, the frequency
separation ∆̃ decreases, the desired region for the excitation of
the desired mode first between Trace III-L and Trace III-R
becomes narrower. For example, when ∆̃ = 0.25 (the case
shown in Fig. 1), the mod-anode voltage should be turned on,
as follows from Fig. 2(b), when the beam voltage is in the range
from 0.405 to 0.8. So, this range of normalized voltages is equal
to 0.395. However, when ∆̃ is equal to 0.1, this range of voltages
varies from 0.58 to 0.72, i.e. it shrinks to 0.14. Note that here
we restrict our consideration to the cases of delayed mod-anode
voltage rise. In practice, the selective excitation of the desired
mode can be achieved with numerous traces, if such traces enter
the soft zone of the desired mode first (e.g. by the point “C”)
and satisfy that the remaining trace after this entrance is always
in the excitation zone of the desired mode.
III. SIMULATION RESULTS
The mode interaction in gyrotrons can be described by
equations [23] derived in the cold-cavity approximation. In this
Section we study these equations by using the generalized
representation of the normalized parameters with respect to
their final values during the voltage startup process [13, 14]. So
the results obtained are valid for gyrotrons operating at arbitrary
voltages and in any modes.
As in Section II, the mode interaction is calculated
 X. Chen et al.: Mode excitation in gyrotrons with triode-type electron guns
assuming the Gaussian axial structure of the resonator field, and
the normalized current for all modes in a triplet is the same. The
mode interaction was studied for the desired mode 0 = 0.57
and its equidistant sidebands (LF, HF) with the frequency
separation ∆̃ = 0.25. Different cases of triode-type scenarios
were considered: the typical triode-type startup scenario (Trace
II in Fig. 1) and the selective triode-type scenario with the mod-
anode voltage starting at the instant when the beam voltage
reaches V̂b,st,opt = 0.65 (Trace III in Fig. 1). Typically, the
voltage rise time is much larger than the resonator decay time.
Therefore it was assumed that in normalized units dV̂/d = 10-3,
( = t/2Q is the time normalized to the resonator decay time).
The initial amplitudes of the modes were defined as F0 = 10-7.
Note that the azimuthal indices of the three modes are chosen
as m = 35, 36, 37 with the same rotation direction, and the
azimuthal phase averaging among the modes was carried out
with N = 40 discretization steps to characterize the phase
beating as well as the azimuthal structure of the modes.
The temporal evolution of the mode amplitudes and the
voltages are shown in Fig. 3. The typical triode-type scenario
shown in Fig. 3(a) leads to excitation of only the LF parasitic
mode, which suppresses the excitation of the desired mode.
However, in the case of the optimal scenario, as shown in Fig.
3(b), the single-mode oscillations of the desired mode are
excited and remain stable up to the final voltages.
Compared to the typical triode type scenario, the one
corresponding to Trace III with an optimized timing for the
mod-anode voltage can help to selectively excite the desired
mode by entering the soft excitation zone of the desired mode
first. With such a scenario, the initial excitation of the desired
mode prior to parasitic modes can be achieved at practically any
mode density. This is illustrated by Fig. 4, where the case with
a small frequency separation of ∆̃ = 0.1 (larger mode density) is
shown (here a slower voltage rise speed is used dV̂/d = 10-4).
In this case, the oscillations of the desired mode are excited first
and they suppress the parasitic modes. The desired mode
remains dominant until the final voltages.
Fig. 3. Mode amplitudes and voltages as functions of time for the
triplet 0 = 0.57, ∆̃ = 0.25 for (a) the typical triode-type (Trace II in
Fig. 1) and (b) the selective triode-type scenario (Trace III in Fig. 1).
Fig. 4. Mode amplitudes and voltages as functions of time for the
triplet 0 = 0.57, ∆̃ = 0.1 in the case of selective triode-type scenario.
IV. NUMERICAL EXAMPLE
In the previous sections, the mode interaction in gyrotrons
with triode-type startup scenarios has been studied with a
9
Fig. 5. Zones of excitation for gyrotrons operating in (a) TE31,8 with
sidebands TE30,8, TE32,8; (b) TE70,8 with sidebands TE69,8, TE71,8.
simplified model where the resonator field is approximated
with a Gaussian distribution, and the couplings and frequency
differences are assumed identical for the triplet modes. To study
the differences between the generalized results and those in the
case of a realistic gyrotron, we have taken the parameters of a
1MW ITER gyrotron operating at TE31,8 [12] as the base model.
Parameters of that gyrotron correspond to the following values
of the normalized parameters used above:  = 11, 0 = 0.55,
I0,fin = 0.012. In our study, we performed simulations of the
mode interaction first in such a gyrotron, and then in similar
gyrotrons with the same normalized parameters but operating
in modes with higher azimuthal indices m, i.e. we did
simulations by increasing the m while keeping the radial index
n constant. Our consideration was restricted to the triplet modes
TEm-1,n, TEm,n, TEm+1,n. The beam voltage Vb = 72.5kV and the
orbital-to-axial velocity ratio  = 1.4 were kept constant. The
orbital efficiency, in this case, is around  = 0.55~0.6.
The zones of mode interaction are shown in Fig. 5 for the
case when m is 31 and when m is increased to 70, respectively.
For the gyrotron operating in TE31,8, the frequency separation
between the modes is ∆̃ = 0.25. The operation of such a mode
with the typical triode-type scenario suffered from severe mode
competition with the LF parasitic mode TE30,8 [12]. As shown
in Fig. 5(a), since the point of final operation is located in the
hard excitation zone of the desired mode, the Trace II that
corresponds to the typical triode-type scenario bypasses the soft
zones of the desired mode. Therefore, in such a case the
oscillations of the LF parasitic mode TE30,8 are excited first, and,
as shown in Fig. 6(a), they remain dominant until the final
voltage. However, by starting the mod-anode voltage at the
moment when the beam voltage reaches V̂b,st = 0.79 (Trace III),
the startup trace passes through the bottom of the soft zone of
Fig. 6. Mode amplitudes and voltages versus time for TE30,8, TE31,8, TE32,8
in the cases of (a) typical triode-type and (b) selective triode-type scenario.
Fig. 7. Mode amplitudes and voltages versus time for TE69,8, TE70,8, TE71,8
in the cases of (a) diode-type and (b) selective triode-type scenario.
 X. Chen et al.: Mode excitation in gyrotrons with triode-type electron guns
the desired mode, and this mode will be excited first. The
oscillations of this desired mode remain stable up to the final
values as shown in Fig. 6(b).
In the next numerical example of gyrotron operating in a
rather high mode TE70,8, the triplet modes TE69,8, TE70,8, TE71,8
have a smaller frequency separation about ∆̃ = 0.14. In the case
of diode-type scenario (Trace I in Fig. 5(b)), as shown in Fig.
7(a), the oscillations of the HF parasitic mode TE71,8 are excited
first and are followed by oscillations of the LF parasitic mode
TE69,8, while the desired mode is shadowed by these two close
sidebands. In the case of a typical triode-type scenario (Trace
II), the mode interaction is similar to the case shown in Fig. 6(b):
the LF parasitic mode TE69,8 is excited first and suppressed the
desired mode. So, practically in these two cases, the excitation
of the desired mode is failed due to the dense spectrum of high-
order modes. However, by starting the mod-anode voltage at
the moment when the beam voltage reaches V̂b,st = 0.43 (Trace
III in Fig. 5(b)), the selective excitation of only the desired
mode can be realized as shown in Fig. 7(b).
It should be noted that, when the azimuthal index is rather
high, the azimuthal structure of the mode can be unstable,
which leads to chaotic oscillations of the field amplitude (see,
e.g. Ref. [24], and references therein). This complex issue lies
beyond the borders of the present study. Here we restrict our
consideration by a simplified model in order to show how the
choice of the voltage rise timing can contribute to the selective
excitation of the desired mode in a gyrotron with a rather dense
spectrum (even for the cases when m is larger than 70). The
design of specific gyrotrons operating in such high-order modes
should also take into account the overall competitive modes by
using a more accurate self-consistent theory [25].
V. EFFECT OF THE VOLTAGE RISE SPEED
The triode-type scenario with an optimal delay of the mod-
anode voltage rise can provide initial excitation of the desired
mode prior to the parasitic ones. However, in the case of high-
order modes, the stability of the desired mode in the process of
voltage rise may depend on the voltage rise speed. In the small-
signal regime, the excitation of oscillations can be described by
the relation F = F0 exp I0 /I0,st -1 τ [11, 16], where I0,st is the
starting current defined from (8) and (9). So the amplitude
growth time depends on the excess of the beam current over its
starting current; both currents vary with the voltages. Hence,
the process of excitation of oscillations from the noise level
may depend on the voltage rise speed.
The successful excitation of the desired mode with the
selective triode-type scenario has been shown in Fig. 4 for the
case 0 = 0.57, ∆̃ = 0.1 with a relatively slow voltage rise speed
dV̂/d = 10-4. However, when the voltage rise speed is increased
to dV̂/d = 10-3, the excitation of parasitic modes can be
observed as shown in Fig. 8. In such a case, the oscillations of
the desired mode start to grow from the noise level when the
trace enters its soft excitation zone at its bottom point (Trace III
in Fig. 1). Since the excess of the beam current over the starting
current is small at this moment, the amplitude has a small
growth rate. Then, as the voltage keeps rising, the condition for
the soft excitation of the LF parasitic mode is fulfilled at the
moment  = 10 when the amplitude of the desired mode is still
small, so the LF parasitic mode is also excited. As the voltage
9
Fig. 8. Mode amplitudes, voltages and the starting currents (colored
dash-dotted lines) as functions of time in the case of fast voltage rise
with 0 = 0.57, ∆̃ = 0.1, dV̂/d = 10-3.
increases, the LF mode tends to have a lower starting current
than the desired mode. So, the growth of the LF mode soon
surpasses that of the desired mode and suppresses it. The reason
for the excitation of the parasitic modes in the case of fast
voltage rise is that oscillations of the desired mode do not have
adequate time to grow to their stable values, which makes
excitation of parasitic modes possible when their excitation
condition is fulfilled. Therefore, for successful excitation of the
desired mode in a dense spectrum, it is favorable to use a slow
voltage rise in the case of a chosen triode-type scenario.
Typically in long-pulse gyrotrons the voltage rise time is
on the order of milliseconds, so this voltage rise time is much
longer than the cavity decay time, which is on the order of
nanoseconds. Therefore we can assume that a selective startup
scenario considered above can be realized in so long pulses. In
gyrotrons operating with short pulses, such as the one described
in [26], the voltage rise time is on the order of several
microseconds, while the cavity decay time is 2Q/  2ns
(Q = 1000 and f = 170GHz). These times correspond to the
voltage rise speed of dV̂ /d = 10-3. In such a case, the fast
voltage rise might endanger the excitation of the desired mode.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the mode interaction in gyrotrons with
triode-type electron guns is studied by using the generalized
approach. The generalized representation of the normalized
parameters with respect to the relative voltages makes the
results applicable to gyrotrons operating in arbitrary modes and
voltages. It provides a generalized picture for the mode
interaction in different cases of triode-type scenarios.
In the case of a typical triode-type scenario, where the
beam voltage is fixed while the mod-anode voltage is increasing,
the excitation of the LF mode cannot be avoided when the
frequency detuning is large or when the mode density is high.
It is shown that by using a proper delay of the mod-anode
voltage rise with respect to the beam voltage, the startup trace
can enter the soft zone of the desired mode first near its bottom
point, so the excitation of the desired mode can be realized in
practically any mode density. Such a scenario can promote the
operation of gyrotrons in very high-order modes with a dense
spectrum. A 170GHz/1MW gyrotron is used to demonstrate the
mode interaction in a realistic gyrotron. It is shown that
successful excitation of the desired mode with respect to its
sidebands can be realized even when the azimuthal index is
increased to m = 70.
Also, we discussed the effects of the voltage rise speed. It
is known that a fast voltage rise can help to avoid excitation of
the parasitic modes when the diode-type or a typical triode-type
scenario is used [16, 27]. However, in the case of the selective
 X. Chen et al.: Mode excitation in gyrotrons with triode-type electron guns
triode-type scenario it is desirable to use a slow voltage rise
speed, which gives adequate time for the growth of oscillations
of the desired mode when the trace passes through its soft
excitation zone only. This is beneficial since typically the
voltage rise time is relatively slow comparing to the cavity
decay time, but one should pay special attention to the operation
with short pulses where the startup time of the full voltage is on
the order of several μs and might be too short for the growth of
the stable oscillations of the desired mode. Besides, there can
be some nonlinear effect associated with the automodulation
instability that take place among equidistance triplets or
quintets [28-31]. The analysis of such effect is now in progress
and will be a topic of a future publication.
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