Power Enhancement of a Small-Orbit Coaxial Cyclotron Autoresonance Maser (CARM) by Employing an External Radial Electrostatic Field

A proposal is presented to enhance the saturation power of a small-orbit coaxial cyclotron autoresonance maser (CARM) by employing an external electrostatic voltage. Nonlinear simulations show possible increase of 22% of the saturation power with high gain of 67 dB for a transverse electric mode at frequency of 140 GHz. Influences of initial parameters on the saturation power are simulated. It is found that due to the use of an external electrostatic field, saturation power of the wave is sensitive to the ratio of the transverse velocity to the axial velocity, as well as to the spread of the transverse velocity. The physical mechanism of the power enhancement may be that the radial force produced by the radial electrostatic field superposes an extra motion on the electron beam and thus causes an extra energy coupling between the electron beam and the radial electric component of the wave.