Multiple-beam amplifiers

Summary form only given, as follows. The principal advantage of multiple-beam devices resides in the fact that beamlets propagate in their own individual beam tunnels [1], enabling non-intercepting beam transport at lower beam voltages and/or guiding magnetic fields, and simultaneously allowing for greater flexibility in tailoring the overall beam perveance to optimize beam-wave interaction. This flexibility is exemplified by several different types of multiple-beam amplifiers being explored at the Naval Research Laboratory; we present examples of three such devices.