Efficient Relativistic Magnetron With a Split Cathode

An L-band all cavity axial extraction (ACAE) relativistic magnetron (RM) with a split cathode is proposed. The proposed RM is driven by virtual cathode that formed by axial flow of electrons from two conical emitters at both sides of slow wave structure, which is different from other RM that powered by radial flow of electrons from a cathode inside the interaction region. This cathode structure is simple but practical to generate a squeeze state electron in an RM with almost all the output structure. To improve the output performance, the anode blocks are modified with additional sections at both ends. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation results illustrate that when this tube is applied with a diode voltage of 600 kV, an average output microwave power of 1.6 GW can be obtained. Comparing with ACAE-RM using a conventional transparent cathode, the power conversion efficiency is improved from 47% to 67%.