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—A complex of equipment for diagnosing the parameters of laser radiation of semiconductor targets, which are excited by high-frequency-modulated electron-beam pulses, is described. The ability to control the shape and duration of laser radiation in the picosecond range via high-frequency modulation of an accelerating-voltage pulse was demonstrated experimentally. A train of laser-radiation pulses with a maximum intensity of up to 2 × 107 W/cm2 was obtained on a cadmium sulfide target (λ = 525 nm).

The coherent composition of the wave beams of two relativistic nanosecond backward-wave tubes (BWTs) with an 8-mm range and peak power in each channel of up to 230 MW is implemented. A specific feature of this experiment was power supply of explosive-emission cathodes by split pulses supplied by a completely solid-phase SOS modulator with reduced amplitude scatter. The voltage growth rate was increased compared to previous experiments, which made it possible to transition to the region of weaker magnetic fields ∼2 T, which was less than cyclotron resonance field, while retaining stable emission of the electron beams. As a result, a standard deviation of phase scatter between the channels of 0.5 ps was found on the time scale.

The possibility of in-phase excitation of two independent nanosecond-pulsed relativistic 37-GHz backward-wave oscillators (BWOs) with high-current electron beams has been studied. This regime can be achieved using BWO switching with a picosecond precision. It is shown that long-term (up to 100–200 periods of the field) phase locking in each channel is stably reproduced from pulse to pulse, which ensures coherent summation of the output wave beams at a megawatt power.

Two modifications of the compact subnanosecond high-voltage bipolar pulse generator with an active unit based on a high-impedance charging line, forming line, and two uncontrolled nitrogen spark gaps without gas purging are studied. In both cases, the forming lines are charged with compression of the energies of incident pulses with a ∼160-kV amplitude, a ∼4-ns duration, and a ∼1.5-ns leading edge. The difference of operation modes of the circuits and their efficiency are specified by a point of connecting the load. In conditions of nanosecond prebreakdown overvoltage at a 100-Hz repetition rate, the spark gaps were energized with a relative scatter of ±(100–170) ps, thus specifying the stability of the shape of output bipolar pulses with a voltage difference up to 250 kV.

An effect of the nonlinear compression of ultrashort microwave pulses has been observed in the process of the amplification of quasistationary electron beams. The Cherenkov mechanism of the interaction of a rectangular electron beam with a decelerated wave in a waveguide partially filled with an insulator is used. The experiment has been conducted on a setup consisting of two synchronized RADAN high-current accelerators. The first accelerator supplied a generator of 37-GHz superradiance pulses with a duration of about 300 ps. The second accelerator with a beam current of up to 1.2 kA and an electron energy of about 300 keV was used in an amplifying section. The theoretical analysis shows that the amplification of the electromagnetic pulses (at least by a factor of 4 in the power) is accompanied by a strong decrease in their duration (down to 100 ps).

Designs of compact converters intended for compression of high-voltage pulses with durations of a few nanoseconds and operating in a traveling wave mode were examined. The energy compression unit contained two lines-high-impedance and forming-with a high -pressure gas spark discharger used as a switch. A traditional serial connection of lines was replaced by a parallel connection to increase the energy compression efficiency. The power of the initial pulse (amplitude, 145 kV; half-height duration, 4 ns; and rise time, 1.5 ns) at a load of 45 Ω was increased by a factor of 1.8, while the calculated value was 2.5. The amplitude was as great as -195 kV, and the power was 17% higher relative to the circuit with a serial connection of lines. When shaped, the pulse was compressed in time to 0.8 ns. Two modifications of devices converting the initial pulse with an amplitude of -160 kV and a rise time of 0.3 ns into pulses with amplitudes of -210 and -250 kV and durations of 0.80 and 0.45 ns, respectively, were tested. Waveguide components of the converters were developed, with which it was possible to minimize the dimensions of the device in order to avoid excitation of higher harmonics while maintaining the electric strength.

The stability of operation of parallel explosive-emission cathodes driven by a split high-voltage pulse with a subnanosecond leading front has been studied. It is established that, upon the training of graphite cathodes in vacuum with up to ∼104 pulses, the current pulse fronts of injected high-current electron beams exhibit a mutual temporal dispersion not exceeding ten picoseconds. The dynamics of this parameter during the training stage, the variation of the absolute spread, and the growth of a relative delay of the moments of beam injection have been investigated.

The results of investigations of converters ensuring correction of the shape and energy compression of high-voltage (∼200 kV) pulses with durations of several nanoseconds and the formation of pulses with subnanosecond rise times across a load of ∼50 Ω are described. The converters are assembled on the basis of forming and transmitting coaxial lines and a high-pressure nitrogen spark gap. Correcting devices are open-circuit strip-line stubs connected to different points of the transmitting or forming line. Depending on the stub connection point, a series or parallel discharge of the forming line and stub to the load is initiated after switching of the spark gap. As a result, the pulse may become either longer or shorter; in the latter case, its amplitude increases. The design of the stubs built into the insulating gap of the coaxial line does not increase the size of the device at all.

Technical parameters of a CLAVI pulsed cathodoluminescence spectroscope are presented. The device is used for the nondestructive spectral luminescence analysis of defects in solid optical and laser materials (crystals, glasses, and ceramic materials). Illustrating examples are presented.

The generation of ultrashort superradiant pulses in the stimulated scattering of an intense microwave (38 GHz) pump wave by a counterpropagating high-current relativistic electron bunch has been observed. Scattered radiation is a single ∼200-ps pulse with a peak power of about 1 MW. Owing to the Doppler shift of the radiation frequency, frequencies up to 150 GHz are present in the spectrum of the scattered pulse.

The regime of excitation of microwave pulses in a 10-GHz range at a pulse duration of 0.8 ns and a peak power of ∼2 GW has been studied in a relativistic backward wave oscillator with an extended periodic slow-wave system. A pulsed electron accelerator generating high-current electron beams (3 GW, ∼600 keV, ∼5 kA, 7 ns) at a repetition rate of 700 Hz and a pulse train width of 1 s has been developed based on a high-voltage generator with inductive energy storage, a semiconductor current interrupter, and a pulse-sharpening hydrogen-filled discharge gap. Optimization of the regime of the field-particle interaction allowed an average microwave power of 2.5 kW to be obtained at a transport magnetic field strength reduced below the cyclotron resonance value.

An original relativistic backward tube (BWT) for a 38 GHz range is developed and tested. The BWT is capable of generating stable pulses of ∼250 ps duration and a peak power of ∼250 MW in trains with a length of up to 1 s at a repetition rate of 1–3.5 kHz. The BWT design implements an inhomogeneous slow-wave structure of increased cross section with a band reflector. A pulsed electron beam (∼270 keV, ∼2 kA, 0.9 ns) was injected by a high-current accelerator based on a high-voltage generator with an inductive energy store, a semiconductor current interrupter, and a pulse-shaping hydrogen-filled discharge gap. A focusing magnetic field of 2 T was generated by a cooled pulsed solenoid power-supplied from a special stabilized current source.

The regime of nonstationary oscillations with a short-time power burst, which is typical of the initial stage of a transient process developed when a beam current significantly exceeds the starting level, is studied in a relativistic backward wave tube (BWT) operating in the millimeter wavelength range. The results of numerical calculations allowed conditions to be established that provide for a nearly 90% efficiency of the power transfer from an electron beam with the parameters 300 keV, 2 kA, 1 ns to the microwave pulse with a duration of 8–10 periods of the microwave field oscillations. The experiments showed the possibility of generating such pulses with a width of 200–250 ps and a power of up to ∼400 MW at a central frequency of about 38 GHz.

Cherenkov superradiance observed when an electron bunch rectilinearly moves through a slow-wave periodic system is studied theoretically and experimentally. The simulation based on averaged equations and the direct numerical simulation using the PIC-code KARAT show that the peak power of the microwave pulses varies as the total number of the particles in a bunch squared. This finding is confirmed experimentally. Ultrashort (300 ps wide) high-power (up to 140 MW) pulses are generated at a frequency of 39 GHz. As an electron source, the high-current subnanosecond RADAN-303 accelerator is used. It injects 0.5-to 1.5-ns-wide electron bunches of current up to 2 kA and energy 200–300 keV. The simulation suggests that the power of the electromagnetic pulses can be increased further (up to 300 or 400 MW) by optimizing the accelerating voltage pulse shape.

We report on the results of testing a hybrid subnanosecond modulator with an input resistance of 50 Ω based on an all-solid-state high-voltage nanosecond-pulse charging source with an inductive energy accumulator, a semiconductor current switch, and a pulse shaper with gas-discharge gaps. Use of the sharpening and cutting discharge gaps filled with hydrogen at a pressure of 100 atm ensured the stable formation of pulses with a peak amplitude of up to 140 kV and a pulse width of ∼500 ps at a repetition rate of up to 2 kHz.

The generation of microwave pulses in a 10-GHz range has been studied in a nonstationary relativistic backward wave oscillator (BWO) operating at a pulse train repetition rate of up to 300 Hz. Regimes with a stabilized phase of the high-frequency filling of pulses with respect to the accelerating voltage pulse front have been observed at a BWO peak output power of ∼1 and 3 GW. In pulse trains with a length of 10–100 s, the average output microwave power reached ∼1 kW.

We have experimentally studied the possibility of increasing the working life of explosive-emission cathodes operating at high repetition frequencies (several kilohertz) of nanosecond accelerating voltage pulses. Micrographs of the cathode surface upon training, photographs of the operating cathode, and analyses of the material carried away from the cathode showed that a substantial role in the cathode degradation is played by heating of some regions of the emissive edge up to a temperature of graphite melting.

Intense (several hundreds of kilowatts) subnanosecond coherent microwave radiation — cyclotron superradiance of an electron swarm moving in a uniform magnetic field — was recorded. The maximum power of the radiation was observed under group synchronization conditions, when the translational velocity of the swarm is equal to the group velocity of the waves in the waveguide channel.

The regime of excitation of subnanosecond high-power microwave pulses has been studied in a Cherenkov device with an extended periodic slow-wave structure, using an electron beam from a compact pulsed high-current electron accelerator (290 keV, 2.3 kA, 1 ns). Conditions are established for which the power conversion coefficient can reach up to 1.5 at an output pulse power of 1.2 GW and a pulse duration of 200 ps.

The results of an investigation of a 38-GHz relativistic backward-wave tube with an output power up to 40 MW are presented. An electron-beam injector based on a 5-ns high-current pulsed periodic modulator with an inductive energy accumulator and a semiconductor current interrupter is used for the first time in experiments.

The generation of ultrashort microwave pulses was observed experimentally in the superradiance of high-current electron bunches propagating through a periodic slow-wave structure. The process included particle bunching within the bunch followed by coherent emission from the entire volume of the bunch.

The influence of the rise time of the current pulse of a nanosecond high-current electron beam on the self-oscillation regime that is established in a relativistic backward-wave tube for the 38 GHz range is investigated experimentally. It is shown that a peak power of more than 50 MW is attained in a time of ∼300 ps.