Design and Experimental Demonstration of Cherenkov Radiation Source Based on Metallic Photonic Crystal Slow Wave Structure

Abstract

This paper presents a kind of Cherenkov radiation source based on metallic photonic crystal (MPC) slow-wave structure (SWS) cavity. The Cherenkov source designed by linear theory works at 34.7 GHz when the cathode voltage is 550 kV. The three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation of the SWS shows the operating frequency of 35.56 GHz with a single TM₀₁ mode is basically consistent with the theoretically one under the same parameters. An experiment was implemented to testify the results of theory and PIC simulation. The experimental system includes a cathode emitting unit, the SWS, a magnetic system, an output antenna, and detectors. Experimental results show that the operating frequency through detecting the retarded time of wave propagation in waveguides is around 35.5 GHz with a single TM₀₁ mode and an output power reaching 54 MW. It indicates that the MPC structure can reduce mode competition. The purpose of the paper is to show in theory and in preliminary experiment that a SWS with PBG can produce microwaves in TM₀₁ mode. But it still provides a good experimental and theoretical foundation for designing high-power microwave devices.