The Reflecting Beam Waveguide

In this paper a type of beam waveguide which uses appropriately shaped metal reflectors instead of dielectric lenses as the phase correcting devices is described. A theory has been developed which, subject to certain restrictions, describes the modes of this type of beam waveguide and predicts a loss of the order of 0.01 db per iteration. A reflecting beam waveguide comprising eight aluminum reflectors has been investigated at a wavelength of 4 millimeters. The measured loss per iteration is approximately 0.015 db which is in good agreement with the theoretical value. The cross-sectional electric field distribution has also been measured and found to be in satisfactory agreement with the theory. It is shown that the reflecting beam waveguide is a practical system for the transmission of power at submillimeter wavelengths.