Explosive instability in a backward wave oscillator

A plasma filled backward wave oscillator supports Trivelpiece-Gould (TG) and TM modes. The former can be driven unstable by a relativistic electron beam via Cerenkov interaction or by the plasma return current as two stream instability. This unstable TG mode can parametrically couple to a TM mode via a negative energy beam mode giving rise to an explosive instability.<
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