Experiments on A6 Relativistic Magnetron Fed by a Solid Cylindrical Cathode: ~350 MW of High-Power Microwaves at ~4.675 GHz (2π-mode) during ~25 ns for Directed Energy (DE) and Non-DE applications

The University of New Mexico (UNM) developed an A6 relativistic magnetron (RM) that may operate in two basic configurations of output power extraction from resonant cavities of the magnetron: (i) radial output with microwave power extraction from one of six resonant cavities into a rectangular horn antenna, and (ii) axial output microwave power extraction from all six resonant cavities smoothly tapered in the axial direction onto a conical horn antenna. In both configurations, the magnetron is driven by the PULSERAD-110A electron beam accelerator that is able to provide 100’s of kV of accelerating voltage and several kA of electron-beam current during tens of ns of output pulsed power with its internal output impedance ~35 Ω. While driven by kV/kA pulsed power, the A6 RM is able to provide 100’s of MW of output microwave power either in the 2π-mode, whose “cold” operational frequency is ~4.6 GHz, or in the π-mode, whose “cold” operational frequency is ~2.3 GHz, with a standard solid cylindrical “cold” explosive-emission cathode. Results of UNM’s latest experimental measurements of output microwave power from an A6 RM with radial output demonstrated ~350 MW of high-power microwave (HPM) power at frequency ~4.675 GHz (2π-mode) during ~25 ns of output HPM pulse.