The relativistic electron cyclotron maser (ECM) has been successfully applied to generating high-power THz wave. In order to realize the additional advantages of broadband tuning and high efficiency interaction, this paper is devoted to exploring the THz pre-bunched ECM. Other than a conventional open-cavity tunable gyrotron consecutively switching between axial modes to realize frequency tuning, a pre-bunched ECM system operates on the backward traveling-wave resonance to achieve broadband smooth tuning. Especially, an interaction circuit of specified axial profile of beam-wave detuning frequency is built to achieve high efficiency. An optimized 0.1 THz pre-bunched ECM system using an electron beam of 30 kV voltage and 3 A current is predicted to generate broad bandwidth of 10 GHz and efficiency between 10% 25%. The broadband tuning pre-bunched ECM is promising for a new generation of broadband and high-power THz source.Index Terms-Broadband tuning, coherent radiation, electron cyclotron maser (ECM), terahertz (THz).
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