Review of two-stream amplifier performance

The basic concept of the electron-electron two-stream instability and its application in building a microwave/millimeter-wave amplifier are reviewed from the perspective of the general use of high-frequency devices. A historical review of the relevant literature is presented, with additional discussion of unpublished laboratory notebooks from the US Naval Research Laboratory. A summary of the theoretical background and its extension to the bounded three-dimensional case is given, along with results from one-dimensional nonlinear particle simulation, which is compared to nonlinear theory. The advantages, limitations, and shortcomings of a two-stream amplifier are discussed in comparison with other currently available devices that work in the same range of parameters.<
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