The split-cavity oscillator (SCO) is a cavity resonator that can be used to produce a high degree of density modulation in an intense relativistic electron beam. The kinetic energy of electrons in the modulated beam can be converted into high-power microwaves. Aspects of the modulated beam that affect the process of converting beam power into microwave power are considered, and a technique is investigated for optimizing the conversion efficiency of a microwave tube based on the SCO. Using a combination of nonlinear theory, numerical simulation, and experiment, it is shown that the most efficient implementation of the SCO is as the modulating component of a klystronlike tube, in which the modulated beam is drifted a relatively short distance to maximize the rf current, which optimizes the efficiency of power extraction.
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Lemke et al. (1994) studied this question.