Intense Coherent Cherenkov Radiation Due to the Interaction of a Relativistic Electron Beam with a Slow-Wave Structure

Extremely high-power microwave emission is generated when a pulsed relativistic electron beam propagates down the axis of a corrugated-wall wave guide. The radiation occurs at a frequency such that the phase velocities of the negative-energy space charge wave on the beam and a low-order TM mode in the wave guide are equal. Power levels of 500 MW are generated. The conversion efficiency of electron energy into electromagnetic energy radiation is 17%.