Development and test of an L-band magnetron

An L-band relativistic magnetron has been designed, built, and tested at approximately 1.1 GHz. The authors have obtained a peak RMS power of 2.4 GW in one waveguide, and a total of 3.6 GW from two waveguides. The overall efficiency reached 9%, compared with the input power. In contrast with previous S- and X-band magnetron results, the L-band magnetron impedance does not collapse at the end of the pulse, and microwave generation tends to last as long as high voltage is applied. This implies that large total energies can be produced by applying long high-voltage pulses.>