High Power Millimeter Wave Sources

Millimeter wave traveling wave tubes for the 21st Century

“…Information concerning millimeter wave BWOs can be found in the chapter by Kantorowicz and Palluel [52]. In addition, an excellent discussion of high power millimeter wave BWOs is contained in the chapter by Forster [53].…”

“…However, advances in solid state technology including active amplifiers and frequency multipliers have essentially eliminated that market. What remained was service as local oscillators in submillimeter wave astronomy, spectroscopy instruments, and as swept probe sources in plasma diagnostics [53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64].…”

Ion lasers-the early years

“…It became clear that fused-silica walls in the discharge tube were not going to allow an indefinite increase in the discharge current, and the sputtering by ions accelerated across the discharge wall sheath (10 to 20 eV) resulted in severe erosion and gas cleanup, even at the CW operating pressure of about 0.5 torr. Since our department at HRL, headed by Donald C. Forster, also did research and development in millimeter-wave vacuum tubes [47], it was only natural to feel that a proper ion laser should be an all-metal-ceramic device. We undertook the design of such a device in the summer of 1964, in parallel with the push toward higher powers using fused-silica tubes made in the HRL glass shop.…”