Theoretical study on high power backward-wave oscillator

A high power backward-wave oscillator (BWO) with a hot cathode is theoretically studied, which has a long life and good stability. Firstly, a single anode electron gun with a hot cathode is simulated by PIC software. The emission current density and the area of the hot cathode are 20 kA/cm2 and 100 cm2, respectively. The optimal design parameters of the electron gun are obtained. The PIC simulation results of BWO show that the output power of BWO can reach 290 MW with a frequency of 10.5 GHz, and the beam-wave interaction efficiency is 29%.