Theoretical investigation of rectangular sheet beam transport in a waveguide loaded by a metamaterial

The transport of a rectangular sheet beam in a metamaterial-loaded waveguide has been theoretically studied. It is found from the theoretical analysis that the space-charge field can lead to the beam curling under the uniform axial magnetic focusing. The simulation results also verify the theoretical analysis. This work lays a foundation for developing new vacuum electron devices based on metamaterials.

Introduction

The metamaterials have great potential in vacuum electron devices (VEDs) due to their unique characteristics [1], [2]. For example, the metamaterial-loaded waveguide can support the electromagnetic wave transmission below the cut-off frequency and can be as a novel slow wave structure with high interaction impedance [3]. In the metamaterial-based VEDs, the sheet beam transport is one of the most important issues, which has not been discussed at present.