Experimental plasma maser as a broadband noise amplifier. II. Short pulse

This paper presents an experimental plasma maser driven by a 2-ns long, high-current electron beam with a typical particles energy of 270 ± 10 keV, a pulsed power of 450 ± 30 MW, and a total energy of 0.85 ± 0.03 J. Tunable plasma characteristics define variations in the spectral maxima of excited high-power microwaves in the range from 3 to 25 GHz. The short beam current pulse has provided the device operation in the mode of a noise amplification with the energy efficiency of 26% ± 3%, mean microwave power over the beam current pulse of 117 ± 10 MW, and an instant (peak) power of up to 430 ± 30 MW. © 2021 Author(s)