Influence of the Output Window Reflection on the Performance of W-Band Gyrotron Traveling Wave Tubes

Effects of the output window reflection instability on the performance of our designed
${W}$
-band broadband gyrotron traveling wave tube (gyro-TWT) were studied by the simulation and hot test experiments. Strong oscillations and frequency self-modulation (FSM) in the after-cavity interaction (ACI) region were observed in the zero-driven state with a two-layer window and are verified with the beam-wave particle-in-cell simulation. Oscillations and FSM of 80–81.8 GHz and 91.03–94.68 GHz are, respectively, generated from the TE
₂₂
and TE
₀₂
modes in the ACI region due to the high window reflection level. By using the “sandwich” and meta-surface windows with low reflection and broad bandwidth, the parasitic ACI oscillations can be effectively suppressed. The maximum saturated output power is improved to 156.8 kW at 94 GHz and is zero-driven stable in our recent hot test experiments.