Terahertz Ultralow-Voltage Gyrotron With Upstream Output

A medium-power broadband-tuning terahertz (THz) gyrotron operating at low voltages is especially attractive for applications in biomedicine. This article tends to elaborate on the challenges related to startup oscillation and ohmic loss suppression of an extremely low-voltage THz gyrotron. High interaction efficiency is achievable by applying long transit time of electrons to compensate the unfavorable decline of the beam-wave coupling strength for low-energy electron beams. A cavity structure which favors backward-wave interaction is proposed to extend the frequency tuning range. The theoretical study predicts that the optimal cavity contributes to the robust frequency tunability at low voltages. The results indicate that a continuous tuning range of 10.7 GHz around the 330-GHz band with output power higher than 1 W can be expected by utilizing a 0.3 kV, 0.5 A helical electron beam.