A Terahertz Traveling-Wave Tube Based on Defect Photonic Crystal Waveguide

A defect photonic crystal waveguide (DPCW) is presented as a slow-wave structure (SWS) for terahertz (THz) traveling-wave tube (TWT). Due to the characteristics of DPCW, the mode competition and backward wave are greatly depressed, improving the stability of TWT. The DPCW SWS has flat dispersion characterization and high interaction impedance at 220 GHz. Simulation results show that saturated output power of 12.1 W, corresponding to a gain of 24.3 dB, and the 3-dB gain ripple within 20 GHz can be achieved at the center frequency of 220 GHz. The DPCW-TWT has a low working voltage at 9.52 kV compared to that of folded waveguide (FWG) SWS in this frequency band. The proposed DPCW for the THz regime is easy to fabricate and assemble using the modern fabrication processing technology.