We demonstrate a new method for measuring changes in temperature distribution caused by coupling a high-power laser beam into an optical fiber and by splicing two fibers. The measurement technique is based on interrogating a fiber Bragg grating by using low-coherence spectral interferometry. A large temperature change is found owing to coupling of a high-power laser into a multimode fiber and to splicing of two multimode fibers. Measurement of the temperature profile rather than the average temperature along the grating allows study of the cause of fiber heating. The new measurement technique enables us to monitor in real time the temperature profile in a fiber without the affecting system operation, and it might be important for developing and improving the reliability of high-power fiber components.
The relativistic magnetron is one of the most efficient high power microwave (HPM) sources but pulse shortening, the result of explosive cathode plasma's radial expansion toward the anode, makes it impractical because the HPM pulse terminates much earlier than the applied voltage. We present experimental results of the operation of a relativistic magnetron fed by a split cathode. A split cathode [Leopold et al., Phys. Plasmas 27, 103102 (2020)] consists of a cathode placed upstream and outside the anode, connected by an axial rod to a reflector (a transverse conducting circular plate) placed downstream from the anode. The electron charge, emitted by an annular explosive cathode emitter, accumulates in the space between the cathode and the reflector and at the same time, screens the rod from explosive plasma formation. This accumulated space charge serves as the electron source for the magnetron. The explosive plasma developing on the emitter remains outside the magnetron and does not propagate into the anode while it operates. We compare the performance of the magnetron operating with a standard explosive emitting solid carbon cathode to that with a split cathode. The experiments demonstrate that whereas for the solid cathode, the microwave pulse developing in the magnetron suffers from pulse shortening, with a split cathode, the pulse survives as long as the amplitude of the applied voltage is sufficient for the magnetron's operation. We support the experiment by particle-in-cell simulations.
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