Numerical simulation of mode competition in magnetically insulated transmission line oscillator

The C-band magnetically insulated transmission line oscillator(MILO) has been simulated by the three dimensional PIC code in order to study the influence of non-symmetry excitation mechanisms on its output modes. It is found that the non-symmetry excitation mechanisms, such as random emitting of cathode electron and the long rise time and low magnitude of input voltage, could produce higher order modes and reduce output power. The 3.6 GHz fundamental mode of the designed MILO, and three higher order eigenmodes of 3.7, 4.1, 4.6 GHz were found in the simulation.The results are similar to those obtained by Karat.