Chaos and oscillations in a loaded plasma-filled diode

A plasma-filled diode can be used as a model for the interaction space in a virtual cathode oscillator (VCO) (vircator). It is shown that depending on the separation of the electrodes x/spl circ//sub L/, the initial ion/electron ratio /spl alpha//spl circ/, and the load Z/spl circ//sub l/, the system may exhibit a cascade of bifurcations leading to chaos. The positioning and extent of chaos can be controlled by a judicious choice of the above parameters. It is also shown that for a range of values of x/spl circ//sub L/,/spl alpha//spl circ/, and Z/spl circ//sub l/ the system is capable of generating oscillations of a well-defined frequency. For other ranges, it reaches a stable state or becomes unstable.