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The dispersion properties of flute electromagnetic waves propagating across an external axial static magnetic field in traveling-wave-tube-like waveguides with low-density plasma filling are investigated. The cylindrical structure consists of a central dielectric rod, placed inside a plasma coaxial layer with a metallic helix sheath on its outer interface, and a metal screen separated from the helix by another dielectric layer.

The present paper addresses numerical calculations on the eigenvalues of hybrid modes in corrugated circular waveguides with varying diameter and corrugation depth. Such calculations are essential for the numerical optimization of advanced mode converters and diameter tapers for future low-loss high-power microwave applications, like broadband high-power radar sensors for space debris observation in low earth orbit (LEO). Corresponding mode converters and diameter tapers may be synthesized based on coupled mode theory. Of particular importance here is the ability to consider varying mode eigenvalues along the perturbed waveguide. The procedure presented here is able to consider arbitrary variations of the corrugation depth as well as the waveguide diameter and therefore is highly flexible. The required computational effort is low. Limitations of the method are discussed.

The HE11hybrid mode, propagating in an overmoded corrugated circular waveguide, is widely used for low loss transmission of high-power microwaves. Due to the inherent broadband frequency behaviour, this will be also essential for future broadband high-power radar applications, like space debris observation in low earth orbit (LEO). A promising amplifier concept for such radar sensors is a helical gyro-TWT. However, since the HE11hybrid mode is not suitable for electron-beam-wave interaction in this kind of vacuum electron device, an additional mode converter is required. The present paper addresses the design procedure of a broadband high-power mode converter, designed for a helical gyro-TWT intended for future broadband high-power radar applications in the W-band. The interaction mode of the helical gyro-TWT under consideration can be easily transferred to the circular waveguide TE11mode. Therefore, a TE11 ↦ HE11mode converter is addressed here. The design procedure is based on a scattering matrix formalism and leads to a high HE11mode content of ≥98.6% within the considered frequency range from 92 GHz to 100 GHz. Inside this frequency band, the mode content is even better and reaches ≈ 99.7% at ≈95 GHz. This allows broadband frequency operation of a helical gyro-TWT and is suitable for broadband high-power radar applications.

A self-consistent system of equations (known as single-mode gyrotron equations) is extended to describe the beam-wave interaction in a cylindrical gyrotron cavity with mode-converting longitudinal corrugations, which produce coupling of azimuthal basis modes. The system of equations is applied to investigate the effect of corrugations on starting currents of the cavity modes. For these modes, eigenvalues, ohmic losses, field structure, and beam-wave coupling coefficients are investigated with respect to the corrugation parameters. It is shown that properly sized mode-converting corrugations are capable of improving the selectivity properties of cylindrical cavities for second-harmonic gyrotrons.

The influence of a coaxial dielectric rod on eigenvalues, ohmic losses, transverse field structure, and beam-wave coupling coefficients is investigated for TE modes of a gyrotron cavity. It is shown that such dielectric insert, when made from a moderate-loss material, results in strong attenuation of all cavity modes, with the exception of those having caustic radii much larger than the insert radius. It is proposed to employ such dielectric loading for selective suppression of competing modes in cavities of second-harmonic gyrotrons. The high performance and flexibility of the proposed method of mode discrimination are demonstrated for the example of the cavity of the high-power 0.39-GHz second-harmonic gyrotron developed at the University of Fukui. In addition, some fascinating capabilities enabled by coaxial inserts made of ultralow-loss dielectrics are discussed.

In this article, RF behavior studies on a $W$ -band continuous wave (CW) gyrotron for industrial, scientific, and medical applications are presented. Two different designs are carried out for the output power level of 50 and 100 kW. The mode competition with the first and second harmonic neighboring modes is carefully investigated, and TE6,2 and TE10,4 are chosen as the operating modes for these designs. The cold cavity design and self-consistent computations for power and efficiency are done to determine the geometrical and beam parameters of the desired modes using the in-house code, Gyrotron Design Suite Second Harmonic Version 2018 (GDS2H-V. 2018). The desired output power is obtained for two different designs at the chosen cavity modes. Additionally, electron guns along with magnetic guidance systems are designed to generate an electron beam with the required beam parameters for the two designs.

The Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) carried by light beams with helical phasefront (vortex beams) has been widely employed in many applications such as optical tweezers, optical drives of micro-machines, atom trapping, and optical communication. OAM provides an additional dimension (diversity) to multiplexing techniques, which can be utilized in addition to conventional multiplexing methods to achieve higher data rates in wireless communication. OAM beams have been thoroughly studied and used in the optical regime but in the mm-wave and THz-wave region, they are still under investigation. In these frequency bands, there are difficulties associated with beam-splitting and beam-combining processes as well as with the use of spiral phase plates and other methods for OAM generation, since the wavelength is much larger compared to those at optical frequencies, leading to higher diffraction losses. The present paper describes the natural generation of high-power OAM modes by gyro-type vacuum electron devices with cylindrical interaction circuit and axial output of the generated rotating higher-order transverse electric mode TEm,n, where m > 1 and n are the azimuthal and radial mode index, respectively. The ratio between the total angular momentum (TAM) JN and total energy WN of N photons is given by m/ω, where ω is the angular frequency of the operating mode, which in a gyrotron oscillator is close to the TEm,n-mode cutoff frequency in the cavity. Therefore, m/ω = Rc/c, where Rc is the caustic radius and c the velocity of light in vacuum. This means that the OAM is proportional to the caustic radius and at a given frequency the same for all modes with the same azimuthal index m. Right-hand rotation (co-rotation with the electrons) corresponds to a positive value of m and left-hand rotation to negative m. The corresponding OAM mode number (topological charge) is l = m – 1. Circularly polarized TE1n modes only possess a Spin Angular Momentum (SAM: s = ±1). TE0n modes have neither SAM nor OAM. This is the result of the photonic (quasi-optical) approach to derive the TAM of modes generated in gyrotrons. The same result follows from the electromagnetic (EM) wave approach for the TAM within a given waveguide volume per total energy of the EM wave in the same volume. Such high-power output beams with very pure higher-order OAM, generated by gyrotron oscillators or amplifiers (broadband) could be used for multiplexing in long-range wireless communications. The corresponding mode and helical wavefront sensitive detectors for selective OAM-mode sorting are available and described in the present paper.

In this paper, we present the current status and both the ongoing investigation and the continuous improvements to the operational performance of a unique gyrotron, which is built using a 20 T superconducting magnet and holds a world record of 10-W terahertz wave generation at the highest frequency (1.08 THz) in the continuous wave (CW) operation. In addition, it has demonstrated high-purity single-mode generation on a sequence of modes that cover a wide range from subterahertz to terahertz frequencies at both the fundamental and second-harmonic resonances of the electron cyclotron frequency. As an illustration, the measurements of the observed radiation patterns of eight output modes radiated from a currently used resonant cavity with a linear up-taper are presented and compared with the corresponding patterns simulated by scattering matrix calculations. A new design of an optimized cavity with a nonlinear up-taper, which further improves the mode purity of the generated output radiation has been proposed and is being currently implemented as a replacement of the existing resonator. The overall operational performance and the output characteristics of this gyrotron (called FU CW III in accordance with the nomenclature adopted at FIR UF Center) make it a versatile and appropriate source of coherent CW radiation for many novel applications in the fields of high-power terahertz science and technologies.

In the previous divertor campaign, the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) device injected 3.6 MW of neutral beam heating power allowing for the achievement of densities approaching 2 × 1020 m−3, and providing the first initial assessment of fast ion confinement in a drift optimized stellarator. The neutral beam injection (NBI) system on W7-X is comprised of two beam boxes with space for four radio frequency sources each. The 3.6 MW of heating reported in this work was achieved with two sources in the NI21 beam box. The effect of combined electron-cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and NBI was explored through a series of discharges varying both NBI and ECRH power. Discharges without ECRH saw a linear increase in the line-integrated plasma density, and strong peaking of the core density, over the discharge duration. The presence of 1 MW of ECRH power was found to be sufficient to control a continuous density rise during NBI operation. Simulations of fast ion wall loads were found to be consistent with experimental infrared camera images during operation. In general, NBI discharges were free from the presence of fast ion induced Alfvénic activity, consistent with low beam betas. These experiments provide data for future scenario development and initial assessment of fast-ion confinement in W7-X, a key topic of the project.

This paper presents a review of the experimental achievements related to the development of high-power gyrotron oscillators for long-pulse or CW operation and pulsed gyrotrons for many applications. In addition, this work gives a short overview on the present development status of frequency step-tunable and multi-frequency gyrotrons, coaxial-cavity multi-megawatt gyrotrons, gyrotrons for technological and spectroscopy applications, relativistic gyrotrons, large orbit gyrotrons (LOGs), quasi-optical gyrotrons, fast- and slow-wave cyclotron autoresonance masers (CARMs), gyroklystrons, gyro-TWT amplifiers, gyrotwystron amplifiers, gyro-BWOs, gyro-harmonic converters, gyro-peniotrons, magnicons, free electron masers (FEMs), and dielectric vacuum windows for such high-power mm-wave sources. Gyrotron oscillators (gyromonotrons) are mainly used as high-power millimeter wave sources for electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH), electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD), stability control, and diagnostics of magnetically confined plasmas for clean generation of energy by controlled thermonuclear fusion. The maximum pulse length of commercially available 140 GHz, megawatt-class gyrotrons employing synthetic diamond output windows is 30 min (CPI and European KIT-SPC-THALES collaboration). The world record parameters of the European tube are as follows: 0.92 MW output power at 30-min pulse duration, 97.5% Gaussian mode purity, and 44% efficiency, employing a single-stage depressed collector (SDC) for energy recovery. A maximum output power of 1.5 MW in 4.0-s pulses at 45% efficiency was generated with the QST-TOSHIBA (now CANON) 110-GHz gyrotron. The Japan 170-GHz ITER gyrotron achieved 1 MW, 800 s at 55% efficiency and holds the energy world record of 2.88 GJ (0.8 MW, 60 min) and the efficiency record of 57% for tubes with an output power of more than 0.5 MW. The Russian 170-GHz ITER gyrotron obtained 0.99 (1.2) MW with a pulse duration of 1000 (100) s and 53% efficiency. The prototype tube of the European 2-MW, 170-GHz coaxial-cavity gyrotron achieved in short pulses the record power of 2.2 MW at 48% efficiency and 96% Gaussian mode purity. Gyrotrons with pulsed magnet for various short-pulse applications deliver Pout = 210 kW with τ = 20 μs at frequencies up to 670 GHz (η ≅ 20%), Pout = 5.3 kW at 1 THz (η = 6.1%), and Pout = 0.5 kW at 1.3 THz (η = 0.6%). Gyrotron oscillators have also been successfully used in materials processing. Such technological applications require tubes with the following parameters: f > 24 GHz, Pout = 4–50 kW, CW, η > 30%. The CW powers produced by gyroklystrons and FEMs are 10 kW (94 GHz) and 36 W (15 GHz), respectively. The IR FEL at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in the USA obtained a record average power of 14.2 kW at a wavelength of 1.6 μm. The THz FEL (NOVEL) at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in Russia achieved a maximum average power of 0.5 kW at wavelengths 50–240 μm (6.00–1.25 THz).

In anticipation of an Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating system upgrade for the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X, a 1.5 MW – 140 GHz continuous-wave gyrotron is under development. In order to provide a first experimental verification of the scientific RF and electron beam optics design of the gyrotron with ms pulses, the Karlsruhe Intitule of Technology has developed a short-pulse pre-prototype gyrotron. In this work, we present details regarding the construction of the pre-prototype as well as measurements from the first experimental campaign delivering up to 1.6 MW in short pulses.

For the required upgrades of the Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating system at the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X, the development of a 1.5 MW 140 GHz Continuous Wave (CW) prototype gyrotron has started. KIT has been responsible to deliver the scientific design of the tube (i.e. the electron optics design and the RF design), with contributions from NKUA and IPP. The prototype gyrotron has been ordered at the industrial partner, Thales, France, and is expected to be delivered in 2021. In parallel, a short-pulse pre-prototype gyrotron has been developed at KIT, to provide the means for a first experimental validation of the scientific design in ms pulses, prior to the construction of the CW prototype. This paper reports on the status of the 1.5 MW CW gyrotron development, focusing on the scientific design and its numerical and experimental validation.

Injection locking of gyrotron oscillators offers an improved mode stability and the precise phase and frequency control of the generated millimeter-wave signal. It might offer completely new possibilities for applications related to nuclear fusion plasma, spectroscopy, and radar. In this presentation it is shown that the theory of Kurokawa can be applied to understand the injection locking of gyrotrons and that it provides accurate prediction of the locking behavior. Based on that, the investigation on injection locking of the EU 170 GHz 2 MW TE 34,19 -mode coaxial-cavity gyrotron using self-consistent single and multimode simulations is presented. Detailed studies on injection signals containing competing modes to account either for signal impurities or for deliberate injection of competing modes are presented.

To allow antenna movements in azimuth and elevation in high-power radar applications, rotary joints are essential. They allow the rotation of a transmission line and therefore are important transmission line components. In the present paper, a broadband rotary joint concept for high-power W-band radar applications is proposed. To avoid a twist of the polarization plane of a linearly polarized mode, like HE11, a combination of two broadband polarizer is used. A cross polarization of Xpol ≤ − 20 dB can be achieved within the considered frequency range from 90 GHz to 100 GHz. This corresponds to a suitable value for radar applications.

The key for a significant increase of the gyrotron efficiency is the development of an efficient multistage depressed collector (MDC) for the annular spent electron beam. During the past years, many different design approaches based on $E \times \mathrm{B}$ drift concept have been theoretically investigated at KIT. The next step towards the experimental validation of such an MDC is the development of a prototype. The complexity of the mechanical design of the MDC is strongly dependent on the size of the electrodes, the manufacturing possibilities of individual parts, the electric field distribution, etc. Considering all those factors, an MDC system has been optimized in order to significantly reduce the manufacturing complexity of the prototype. As a result, a significant smaller and simpler conceptual design for the MDC system is presented.

openaire: EC/H2020/633053/EU//EUROfusion An Electron Cyclotron Wave (ECW) system will be used in the European DEMO for the stabilization of Neoclassical Tearing Modes (NTMs). In order to avoid movable mirrors in the harsh environment close to the plasma and to simplify the NTM launcher integration, the tuning of the ECW deposition location can be achieved by launching frequency-tunable ECWs from fixed mirrors while the frequency is tuned in discrete steps of 2–3GHz. An overview of the frequency step-tunable ECW system for NTM stabilization is presented. The design considerations are discussed based on the current DEMO baseline parameters and the status of technologies. A simulation of NTM stabilization with an idealized frequency tunable ECW system on an analytical NTM model is shown. The simulation takes into account a realistic tuning speed based on the present technology and considers the current NTM launcher configurations in DEMO. A simple sweeping strategy is adapted for the control of frequency. Various uncertainties, which will affect the feasibility, need to be further investigated.

An analytical model of coaxial traveling-wave-tube-like waveguides with plasma filling has been justified and utilized to analyze the eigenmodes. Very often, introducing plasma into vacuum electronic devices leads to essential advantages as compared with evacuated tubes. The cylindrical structure under the present consideration consists of a central dielectric rod, placed inside a plasma coaxial layer with a metallic helix sheath on its outer interface, and a metal screen separated from the plasma by another dielectric layer. The dispersion properties of electromagnetic waves propagating across the external axial static magnetic field in such traveling-wave-tube-like waveguides are studied and summarized. The presence of a dense plasma coaxial layer makes the media nontransparent for waves in the electron cyclotron frequency range. However, surface type electromagnetic waves can propagate in this case. These waves are called azimuthal surface waves (ASWs). The helix sheath causes coupling of ordinarily and extraordinarily polarized ASWs. The zeroth radial ASW modes have been found to be most dangerous for parasitic wave excitation in dense plasma-loaded, coaxial traveling-wave-tube-like waveguides.

An off-the-shelf Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) system is used to stabilize the free-running oscillation frequencies of the 140 GHz, 1 MW CW gyrotrons of the companies Thales, France, and CPI, USA, that both operate at the ECRH system of the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator at IPP Greifswald, Germany. Both tubes are equipped with diode-type Magnetron Injection Guns (MIGs). Considering each of both type of gyrotrons as a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO), each individual gyrotron is controlled by the variation of the body voltage. The results of the experiments demonstrate the capability of the developed and implemented inexpensive off-the-shelf PLL system. It is possible to stabilize the oscillation frequency within a full -20 dB bandwidth of < 100 kHz. Applications such as Collective Thomson Scattering (CTS) systems to accurately diagnose the ions in fusion plasmas could benefit from this development in future.

A multifaceted simulation procedure, addressing the electron beam properties, the beam-wave interaction, and the internal losses, has been used for the simulation of the experimental operation of a 1.5-MW 140-GHz short-pulse preprototype gyrotron. The preprototype is related to the development of 1.5-MW gyrotrons for the upgrade of the electron cyclotron resonance heating system at the stellarator W7-X. A very good reproduction of experimental results has been achieved by simulation, without resorting to arbitrary speculations. This validated the numerical tools as well as the design and fabrication of the short-pulse preprototype, which fully reached the target of efficient 1.5-MW operation in millisecond pulses. Special attention has been given to simulating the possibility of parasitic after-cavity interaction in the gyrotron launcher. Also, parasitic backward-wave excitation in the gyrotron cavity has been demonstrated by simulation, at a frequency and voltage range in agreement with experimentally observed parasitic oscillations. This offers an additional possibility with respect to the origin of deleterious parasitic oscillations in high-power gyrotrons, which are usually attributed mainly to the gyrotron beam tunnel.

A new operation scheme is proposed to enable large increase in output power of terahertz gyrotrons. In this scheme, the gyrotron operates in weakly attenuated dielectric modes supported by a conventional metal cavity, which is loaded with a coaxial rod made of ultralow-loss CVD diamond. Along with high ohmic Q values, these modes are shown to possess rather strong beam-wave coupling, which ensures high interaction efficiency. As an example, the CVD diamond loading is applied to the cavity of the 527-GHz gyrotron developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The output power of this gyrotron operated in the high-Q dielectric mode is found to reach 140 W, compared to 15 W for the conventional-cavity tube. Using the coupled-mode approach, a new design is presented for a high-Q diamond-loaded cavity of the 527-GHz gyrotron. The designed cavity is shown to provide a high-purity transformation of the operating dielectric mode to the outgoing mode of the hollow exit waveguide. The output mode can be extracted from the gyrotron using a standard output system and attains a peak power of 171 W, which is more than 11 times higher than that of the 527-GHz gyrotron with a conventional cavity. The robustness of gyrotron performance against errors in manufacturing of the diamond-loaded cavity is discussed.

Modern Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) systems in fusion plasma research take advantage of multi-frequency gyrotrons. This means that the frequency band of some millimeter-wave diagnostics contains more than one narrowband gyrotron-frequency line, which needs to be suppressed. Compact standard-waveguide notch filters, based on coupled waveguide resonators with rectangular cross section, are presented, which can provide very high suppression of several gyrotron frequencies providing low insertion loss in the pass band.

One way to improve the mode selection in terahertz gyrotrons is the use of stepped cavity resonators that satisfy the resonance condition for two modes with the same azimuthal but different radial indices. Such sectioned resonators, or complex cavities, were analyzed in detail by several authors, recently and in the past. One common problem for such designs is the excitation of unwanted modes by both the stepped cavity structure and the cavity input and output tapers. Mode conversion becomes especially a severe problem for higher-order resonant modes in highly oversized resonators. In this article, we introduce ways to minimize the unwanted mode conversion in both the radial step of the cavity as well as in the tapered sections of the cavity and the up-taper to the collector and output window. Frequency tuning between 391.5 and 393.5 GHz has been achieved by operation at different axial mode numbers of the mode pair TE8,4/TE8,5. Due to their intrinsic higher output mode purity, the so-called antiphase modes of the complex cavity have been chosen for this output mode purity study.

A first theoretical study on the possibility for stepwise frequency tuning of a dual-frequency 170/204 GHz TE 34,19 /TE 40,23 -mode coaxial-cavity gyortron pre-prototype, under development at KIT, has been done. A bandwidth of ± 10 GHz around both center frequencies has been considered as tuning range. For each of the two bands, in total 11 modes have been selected to cover the entire frequency range. The theoretical study has shown that just changing the azimuthal index of the operating mode to obtain an appropriate mode series for frequency step-tunability is insufficient because the insert loading constraint is not fulfilled. A new mode series has been found, where the insert loading constraint is obeyed.

The Collective Thomson Scattering (CTS) diagnostic measures the scattering spectrum of incident radiation off collective fluctuations in plasmas. In Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) the diagnostic uses a 140 GHz heating gyrotron as a source of the probing radiation. At this frequency, the CTS spectra are heavily affected by the electron cyclotron emission, and the microwave beam propagation is restricted at typical W7-X plasma parameters. The diagnostic was successfully commissioned in the last experimental campaign and demonstrated ion temperature measurements. However, the signal-to-noise ratio was too low for measuring other quantities such as the fast-ion velocity distribution function or the fuel ion ratio. Currently, the W7-X CTS diagnostic is undergoing an upgrade to a frequency of 175 GHz. This will increase the sensitivity of the diagnostic, since the noise due to electron cyclotron emission will be reduced, and it will relax the constraints on microwave beam propagation in W7-X. Here we present the salient features of the upgraded CTS system and discuss its prospects for both thermal-ion and fast-ion measurements.

In this paper, the design studies of a triple frequency (170/204/236GHz) coaxial cavity gyrotron are carried out which is suitable for plasma heating application in a commercial fusion demonstration (DEMO) tokamak class prototype reactor. To reduce the spatial and maintenance requirements in the heating system of the DEMO tokamak, the output power of the proposed gyrotron is targeted at $\approx 3$ MW for all the three operating frequencies. The cavity modes are selected by considering various physical and technical constraints of the multifrequency gyrotron. The dimensions of the interaction cavity are optimized for the chosen modes at the desired frequencies through cold-cavity calculations. Mode competition studies are then performed to understand the effect of the parasitic modes on the desired modes around the operating frequencies. A triangular corrugated coaxial insert is considered for reducing the problem of localized heating. Initial optimization of beam parameters and magnetic field is carried out using single-mode calculations for the maximum output efficiency. A triode-type coaxial magnetron injection gun is designed for supporting this multifrequency operation. Startup calculations are carried out with beam space-charge neutralization at all the three operating frequencies. These studies predict that a 3-MW, continuous-wave operation is possible at the desired frequencies of the proposed DEMO class gyrotron.

The optimized superconducting stellarator device Wendelstein 7-X (with major radius , minor radius , and plasma volume) restarted operation after the assembly of a graphite heat shield and 10 inertially cooled island divertor modules. This paper reports on the results from the first high-performance plasma operation. Glow discharge conditioning and ECRH conditioning discharges in helium turned out to be important for density and edge radiation control. Plasma densities of with central electron temperatures were routinely achieved with hydrogen gas fueling, frequently terminated by a radiative collapse. In a first stage, plasma densities up to were reached with hydrogen pellet injection and helium gas fueling. Here, the ions are indirectly heated, and at a central density of a temperature of with was transiently accomplished, which corresponds to with a peak diamagnetic energy of and volume-averaged normalized plasma pressure . The routine access to high plasma densities was opened with boronization of the first wall. After boronization, the oxygen impurity content was reduced by a factor of 10, the carbon impurity content by a factor of 5. The reduced (edge) plasma radiation level gives routinely access to higher densities without radiation collapse, e.g. well above line integrated density and central temperatures at moderate ECRH power. Both X2 and O2 mode ECRH schemes were successfully applied. Core turbulence was measured with a phase contrast imaging diagnostic and suppression of turbulence during pellet injection was observed.

Single-stage depressed collector systems are widely used in high-power gyrotrons in order to increase the overall efficiency. The position where the deceleration of the beam takes place influences the collector efficiency. In this paper, several deceleration schemes are numerically investigated for the short-pulse prototype of the 170-GHz, 1-MW European gyrotron for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. The results of this paper are in a qualitative agreement with the results of dedicated experiments. A simple idea is also proposed for the significant increase of the overall gyrotron efficiency without an important technological modification.

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is doing research and development in the field of megawatt-class radio frequency (RF) sources (gyrotrons) for the Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) systems of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and the DEMOnstration Fusion Power Plant that will follow ITER. In the focus is the development and verification of the European coaxial-cavity gyrotron technology which shall lead to gyrotrons operating at an RF output power significantly larger than 1 MW CW and at an operating frequency above 200 GHz. A major step into that direction is the final verification of the European 170 GHz 2 MW coaxial-cavity pre-prototype at longer pulses up to 1 s. It bases on the upgrade of an already existing highly modular short-pulse (ms-range) pre-prototype. That pre-prototype has shown a world record output power of 2.2 MW already. This paper summarizes briefly the already achieved experimental results using the short-pulse pre-prototype and discusses in detail the design and manufacturing process of the upgrade of the pre-prototype toward longer pulses up to 1 s.

An iterative procedure is described, which models the influence of the thermal expansion of the gyrotron cavity on the expected gyrotron performance. It is a multiphysics simulation method, which involves electrodynamic, thermal-hydraulic, and thermo-mechanical simulations. The method is applied to the first European 170-GHz, 1-MW continuous wave prototype gyrotron for the ITER. According to the simulations, a performance reduction of ~15% is expected at nominal operating parameters, because of the thermal expansion of the cavity. Alternative operating points to mitigate this effect are proposed and numerically validated. The numerical results are discussed in light of experimental findings.

The possibility of dynamic after cavity interaction (ACI) in a down-scaled gyrotron model has been studied using a 3-D conformal finite-difference time-domain particle-in-cell simulation. The purpose has been to benchmark this type of simulation against previous numerical results obtained by other methods and tools and to obtain additional physical insight on the effect of dynamic ACI. The benchmarking has been successful, as a good agreement with the older results has been achieved. Thus, the algorithms developed and validated can be used for studying the issue in a larger scale or more realistic model with affordable computational resources in the near future.

In this paper, RF behavior studies of a dual regime coaxial cavity gyrotron designed for electron cyclotron resonance heating and current drive of magnetically confined plasmas in the future fusion reactors are presented. Considering all the design constraints, the mode pair is chosen as $\text {TE}_{{48},{30}}$ and $\text {TE}_{{55},{34}}$ for operation at 220 and 251.5 GHz, respectively. The interaction circuit is initially designed through the cold cavity design. A triangular corrugated insert offers good mode selection and also reduces the localized heating problem. Single mode computations are carried out to optimize the beam parameters for the maximum efficiency of the chosen mode pair. Time-dependent multimode simulations are carried out to conform the power in the desired mode pair and the possibility of power in the competing modes. Start-up analyses are performed before and after space-charge neutralization with nonuniform magnetic field using nominal electron beam parameters obtained from magnetron injection gun calculations. These studies ensure that the continuous wave operation of a coaxial cavity gyrotron is possible with the output power of ≈2 MW with the chosen mode pair.

The magnetron injection gun (MIG) is the most critical part of any gyrotron. Small tolerances in the manufacturing process and alignment of the subcomponents directly affect the electron beam quality and therefore the beam wave interaction. At the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), an innovative new Inverse MIG (IMIG) is proposed for the European 2-MW 170-GHz coaxial-cavity gyrotronwhich is under the developmentand test at KIT. The design of the IMIG has been done under strict consideration of the gun design criteria published earlier. In order to find the maximum allowed tolerances of that IMIG which allows operation within the allowed gun design criteria, systematic theoretical studies have been done. Commonly used “conventional” MIGs have been shown that a small emitter, anode, and cathodemisalignment have a significant influence to the electron beam quality.

In this paper, a complete design methodology of a triple frequency gyrotron is presented, which can also be further applied to multifrequency operations. Frequencies for operation are selected as 220, 247.5, and 275 GHz for the localized and intense heating of magnetically confined plasmas (i.e., electron cyclotron heating and current drive) for future fusion reactors. A cautious selection procedure of the mode triplet is portrayed in accordance with the all possible physical and technical constraints. Typical cold cavity (beam absent) and single-mode (beam present) calculations are performed and presented with extended interaction structure (including an optimized nonlinear taper section). A triode type configuration is adopted for magnetron injection gun to produce the electron beam with desired characteristics as required for RF behavior. Time-dependent multimode calculations are presented with nonuniform magnetic field and beam parameters optimized by gun simulations. These rigorous calculations affirm proper working of the design with $\approx 1$ -MW continuous wave power for chosen mode triplet and efficiency $\approx 35$ %.

A numerical synthesis method for the optimization of launchers with hybrid-type wall surface for high-power fusion gyrotrons is proposed in this paper. The profile of such a launcher is built from a novel combination of a periodic harmonic wall perturbation followed by a mirror-line-type deformation, so we named it hybrid-type launcher. The synthesis method has been tested to design a hybrid-type launcher to transform the TE32,9 mode of the ITER EU 1-MW gyrotron operating at 170 GHz. The simulation results show that the fundamental Gaussian mode content (FGMC) of the millimeter-wave beam at the radiating aperture of the hybrid-type launcher is approximately 99.1%. In comparison with the corresponding harmonically deformed launcher, the simulations results reveal that the launcher with hybrid-type surface contour provides higher conversion efficiency combined with low diffraction loss (0.7%). The computation time for the design of hybrid-type launchers is just half of that for mirror-line launchers. In the case of not very short launchers, hybrid-type launchers can provide high FGMCs of RF beams with low diffraction losses that are comparable with those of mirror-line launchers.

In order to evaluate the emission inhomogeneity of thermionic gyrotron cathode emitters, a novel definition of emission inhomogeneity and evaluating method from the current–voltage characteristics is described in this paper. Results for three different types of gyrotron oscillators at different emitter temperatures based on experimental data and mathematical treatment are considered in the investigation. The influence of emission inhomogeneity on gyrotron efficiency is numerically calculated using the 3-D codes ARIADNE and EURIDICE. The emitter inhomogeneity upper limits for the distributions of work function, temperature, and electric field are given at the end of this paper.

In the frame of the EUROfusion Work Package Heating and Current Drive (WP HCD) of the Power Plant Physics and Technology (PPPT) program, CVD diamond disk Brewster-angle windows for gyrotron operation at multi-megawatt RF power levels and long pulses are under development. These windows allow for frequency step-tuneable operation. The Brewster-angle of 67.2° for diamond leads to an elliptical connection of the disk to the copper waveguides (WGs), requiring an advanced joining process. For proper transmission of the RF power, the disk consists of low loss CVD diamond of optical grade. The current target for the WG aperture of DEMO is 63.5 mm. It allows for an RF power transmission of 2 MW, but it requires a disk diameter of 180 mm for the 67.2° angle. In addition, a thickness of approximately 2 mm is needed to achieve the proper mechanical stability. State of the art microwave plasma reactors are not capable of growing disks of such size. The maximum available diameter of a polycrystalline CVD diamond disk suited to microwave applications is currently 140 mm. Thus, the industrial partner Diamond Materials GmbH (Freiburg, Germany) is doing extensive diamond growth experiments. A first of its kind, 180 mm thermal grade, crack-free, diamond disk was produced in the microwave plasma reactor with an average unpolished thickness of about 2 mm. First loss tangent measurements have been also performed. This paper describes the steps and the first results of this non-straightforward path, a challenging new field for diamond manufacturers and a major breakthrough for future frequency step-tuneable operation.

A research activity in the Institute for Plasma Science and Technology of National Research Council (ISTP-CNR, Italy, former IFP-CNR) and in L.T. Calcoli (LTC, Italy) is aimed at the design and construction of calorimetric loads for absorption and measurement of high power millimeter-waves in the electron cyclotron frequency range. Recently, two CW 170 GHz loads, one for the European ITER gyrotron test facility and the other for the FALCON test- bed, have been installed at the Swiss Plasma Center (SPC, Switzerland). One short pulse (2 s) load for 1 MW, designed and optimised to operate at two different frequencies (84 GHz and 126 GHz), was provided for testing and conditioning two new dual-frequency gyrotrons for the Tokamak a Configuration Variable (TCV, Switzerland). Two additional CW loads, designed for absorbing powers higher than 1 MW, have been delivered to the National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST, Japan) and exploited for the acceptance tests and the conditioning of the prototype of the Japanese ITER gyrotron. The present status and the most recent experimental results achieved in the framework of this development activity are reported in the paper.

To increase the total injected Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) power in the plasma of the nuclear fusion experiment Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X), an upgrade of the existing gyrotron installation is in progress. The existing ECRH system, currently equipped with ten one-MW-class, 140 GHz continuous wave (CW) gyrotrons, will be augmented by enhanced 1.5 MW tubes, which are based on the successful existing 1 MW gyrotron design.

The KIT 170 GHz – 2 MW longer-pulse coaxial-cavity gyrotron is continuously upgraded with the goal to reach 1 s pulses with a modular construction. In this work, we present the latest experimental results that were achieved after modifications on the mirror-box, the collector and the cooling system of the gyrotron. In particular, it was possible to demonstrate pulses with output power up to 2 MW and pulse lengths up to 50 ms.

8 gyrotrons are in routine operation in the Electron Cyclotron Resonance, !!eating (ECRH) system at the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak. All gyrotrons are step-tunable operating at 105 and 140 GHz with a maximum output power of about 1 MW and 10 s pulse length. The system includes 8 transmission lines, mainly consisting of oversized corrugated waveguides (I.D. = 87 mm) with overall lengths between 50 and 70 meters including quasi-optical sections at both ends. The transmission lines are operating in air and transmission at maximum power levels was limited by arcing in the past. Several measures led to a significant improvement of the power handling capability of the transmission lines.

The electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) system of the ASDEX Upgrade tokomak has been upgraded over the last 15 years from a 2 MW, 2 s, 140 GHz system to an 8 MW, 10 s, dual frequency system (105/140 GHz). The power exceeds the L/H power threshold by at least a factor of two, even for high densities, and roughly equals the installed ion cyclotron range of frequencies power. The power of both wave heating systems together (>10 MW in the plasma) is about half of the available neutral beam injection (NBI) power, allowing significant variations of torque input, of the shape of the heating profile and of Qe/Qi, even at high heating power. For applications at a low magnetic field an X3-heating scheme is routinely in use. Such a scenario is now also forseen for ITER to study the first H-modes at one third of the full field. This versatile system allows one to address important issues fundamental to a fusion reactor: H-mode operation with dominant electron heating, accessing low collisionalities in full metal devices (also related to suppression of edge localized modes with resonant magnetic perturbations), influence of Te/Ti and rotational shear on transport, and dependence of impurity accumulation on heating profiles. Experiments on all these subjects have been carried out over the last few years and will be presented in this contribution. The adjustable localized current drive capability of ECRH allows dedicated variations of the shape of the q-profile and the study of their influence on non-inductive tokamak operation (so far at q 95 > 5.3). The ultimate goal of these experiments is to use the experimental findings to refine theoretical models such that they allow a reliable design of operational schemes for reactor size devices. In this respect, recent studies comparing a quasi-linear approach (TGLF) with fully non-linear modeling (GENE) of non-inductive high-beta plasmas will be reported.

Sensitive millimeter wave diagnostics in magnetic confinement plasma fusion experiments need protection from gyrotron stray radiation in the plasma vessel. Modern electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) systems take advantage of multi-frequency gyrotrons. This means that the frequency band of some millimeter wave diagnostics contains more than one narrow-band gyrotron-frequency line, which needs to be effectively suppressed. A compact standard waveguide notch filter based on coupled waveguide resonators with rectangular cross-section is presented which can provide very high suppression of several gyrotron frequencies and has low insertion loss of the passband., Projekt DEAL

The 10 MW electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) system at the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) currently relies on the successful operation of continuous wave (CW) 1 MW, 140 GHz gyrotrons which have chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond output windows cooled by the industrial silicon oil Dow Corning 200(R) 5 cSt. The window features a 1.8 mm thick diamond disk brazed to two copper cuffs with an aperture of 88 mm, which are then integrated in a steel housing. In the context of the upgrade of the ECRH system towards higher microwave power, this gyrotron design has been significantly advanced to fulfill the requirement of 1.5 MW CW operation, still at 140 GHz. A prototype of this new gyrotron is under development at Thales, France. This paper reports the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) conjugated heat transfer and structural analyses of the diamond window performed using the commercial code ANSYS V19.2 to investigate its performance at 1.5 MW operation. Furthermore, sensitivity studies were also carried out with respect to the absorbed power in the disk and the mm-wave beam radius at the window location. These analyses showed that the window design of the existing 1 MW gyrotrons still works quite well at higher power operation, thus verifying the performance of the window. Even in the worst case scenario of 1.5 kW absorbed power, the maximum temperature of 215 °C at the disk center can be safely accepted, being below the conservative limit of 250 °C for CVD diamond. In addition, the non-axial symmetric thermal gradients due to the geometry of the cooling channels lead to thermal stresses in the disk and the cuffs. However, they are much lower than the limits. The copper cuffs experience plasticity deformation in the region of the interface with the diamond disk up to a value of about 1.5 mm.

The DEMO-relevant gyrotron research at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is driven by the European concept for a demonstration fusion reactor (EU DEMO). This paper reports on the recent results of the theoretical and experimental studies towards the development of gyrotrons fulfilling the DEMO needs.

The status of the THALES 140 GHz 1 MW CW industrial gyrotron program for the W7-X stellarator is discussed in this paper. The industrial design and performances arc briefly discussed with a focus on the tube reliability and endurance.

Excitation of extraordinarily polarized azimuthal surface eigenwaves is shown to be possible in the frequency range above the upper-hybrid resonance in coaxial waveguides with metal walls, which are partially filled by cold magnetoactive plasmas. Interaction of these waves with the flow of electrons, which rotate around the plasma column in the gap separating the plasma from the waveguide wall, is studied. By employing the numerical methods, it is shown that the conditions of resonant interaction of the electron beam with these high-frequency azimuthal surface waves can be achieved in the case of sufficiently strong external magnetic fields without passing into the regime of the ultrarelativistic velocities of the beam electrons.

An inverse magnetron injection gun (MIG) has been designed for the 2-MW, 170-GHz, coaxial-cavity gyrotron built at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The inverse gun design could offer the possibility for the implementation of a larger emitter ring without the need for a bigger bore hole in the magnet compared with the conventional type of MIGs. Considering the fundamental beam parameters, an excellent beam quality has been achieved in numerical simulation. Electron-trapping suppression criteria were considered during the design phase of the MIG.

In many tokamak and stellarator experiments around the globe that are investigating energy production via controlled thermonuclear fusion, electron cyclotron heating and current drive (ECH&CD) are used for plasma start-up, heating, non-inductive current drive and MHD stability control. ECH will be the first auxiliary heating method used on ITER. Megawatt-class, continuous wave (CW) gyrotrons are employed as high-power millimeter (mm)-wave sources. The present review reports on the worldwide state-of-the-art of high-power gyrotrons. Their successful development during the past years changed ECH from a minor to a major heating method. After a general introduction of the various functions of ECH&CD in fusion physics, especially for ITER, Section 2 will explain the fast-wave gyrotron interaction principle. Section 3 discusses innovations on the components of modern long-pulse fusion gyrotrons (magnetron injection electron gun (MIG), beam tunnel, cavity, quasi-optical output coupler, synthetic diamond output window, single-stage depressed collector) and auxiliary components (superconducting magnets, gyrotron diagnostics, high-power calorimetric dummy loads). Section 4 deals with present megawatt-class gyrotrons for ITER, W7-X, LHD, EAST, KSTAR and JT-60SA, and also includes tubes for moderate pulse length machines as, ASDEX-U, DIII-D, HL-2A, TCV, QUEST and GAMMA-10. In Section 5 the development of future advanced fusion gyrotrons is discussed. These are tubes with higher frequencies for DEMO, multi-frequency (multi-purpose) gyrotrons, stepwise frequency tunable tubes for plasma stabilization, injection-locked and coaxial-cavity multi-megawatt gyrotrons, as well as sub-THz gyrotrons for collective Thomson scattering (CTS). Efficiency enhancement via multi-stage depressed collectors, fast oscillation recovery methods and reliability, availability, maintainability and inspectability (RAMI) will be discussed at the end of this section.

Over the last 15 years, the Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) system at the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak has been upgraded from a 2 MW, 2 s, 140 GHz system to an 8 MW, 10 s, dual frequency system (105/140 GHz). Eight gyrotrons were in routine operation during the current experimental campaign. All gyrotrons are step-tunable operating at 105 and 140 GHz with a maximum output power of about 1 MW and 10 s pulse length. The system includes 8 transmission lines, mainly consisting of oversized corrugated waveguides (I.D. = 87 mm) with overall lengths between 50 and 70 meters including quasi-optical sections at both ends. Further improvements of the transmission lines with respect to power handling and reliability are underway.

High-power, high-frequency gyrotrons are the only promising sources for the electron cyclotron resonance heating and current drive (ECRH&CD) in the present thermonuclear fusion plasma experiments and in future power plants. Compared to the hollow-cavity gyrotron design, the coaxial cavity gyrotron design facilitates improved mode competition control, which eventually increases the output power per tube. At KIT-IHM, the successful operation of a 170-GHz gyrotron has been demonstrated in the short-pulse regime, and the ongoing research activities are aiming to upgrade the existing coaxial cavity gyrotron from short-pulse (1–10 ms) to long-pulse (~ 1s) operation. In this paper, with the help of multiphysics simulations, the performance of the insert cooling system is verified for the continuous wave (CW) operation and the operating limits of the insert cooling systems are determined. The perfectly aligned coaxial Glidcop insert will be able to withstand operating conditions leading to a maximal heat flux of about 0.39 kW/cm2. The influence of insert misalignment on insert loading is also studied systematically in this paper.