Backward-wave oscillators

EIOs), backward wave oscillators (BWOs) or magnetrons are available. Their spectral characteristics may be favourable however, they typically require highly stabilized high-voltage power supplies. Still higher frequencies may be obtained using far-infrared gas lasers pumped for example by a CO- laser [49]. 

In the microwave region tunable monochromatic radiation is produced by klystrons, each one being tunable over a relatively small frequency range, or a backward wave oscillator, tunable over a much larger range. Both are electronic devices. Absorption experiments are usually carried out in the gas phase, and mica windows, which transmit in this region, are placed on either end of the absorption cell, which may be several metres in length. Stark... 

Microwave Klystron backward wave oscillator Mica None Crystal diode... 

Millimetre wave Klyston (frequency multiplied) backward wave oscillator Mica polymer None Crystal diode Golay cell thermocouple bolometer pyroelectric... 

Millimetre wave radiation may also be generated by a klystron or backward wave oscillator but, since klystrons produce only microwave radiation, the frequency must be... 

A family of vacuum-tube MMW sources is based on the propagation of an electron beam through a so-called slow-wave or periodic structure. Radiation propagates on the slow-wave structure at the speed of the electron beam, allowing the beam and radiation field to interact. Devices in this category are the traveling-wave tube (TWT), the backward-wave oscillator (BWO) and the extended interaction oscillator (EIO) klystron. TWTs are characterized by wide bandwidths and intermediate power output. These devices operate well at frequencies up to 100 GHz. BWOs, so called because the radiation within the vacuum tube travels in a direction opposite to that of the electron beam, have very wide bandwidths and low output powers. These sources operate at frequencies up to 1.3 THz and are extensively used in THZ spectroscopic applications [10] [11] [12]. The EIO is a high-power, narrow band tube that has an output power of 1 kW at 95 GHz and about 100 W at 230 GHz. It is available in both oscillator and amplifier, CW and pulsed versions. This source has been extensively used in MMW radar applications with some success [13]. 

Using two pulsed tunable dye lasers, Na atoms in a beam are excited to an optically accessible ns or ml state as they pass between two parallel plates. Subsequent to laser excitation the atoms are exposed to millimeter wave radiation from a backward wave oscillator for 2-5 [is, after which a high voltage ramp is applied to the lower plate to ionize selectively the initial and final states of the microwave transition. For example, if state A is optically excited and the microwaves induce the transition to the higher lying state B, atoms in B will ionize earlier in the field ramp, as shown in Fig. 16.5. The A-B resonance is observed by monitoring the field ionization signal from state B at fB of Fig. 16.5 as the microwave frequency is swept. 

Here we present results of high-field tunable-frequency ESR studies of CuGe03, which were done at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee, FL. A key feature of the employed technique is a combination of a 25 T high homogeneity resistive magnet and a set of easily-tunable sources of mm- and submm- wave radiation, Backward Wave Oscillators. 

In regions of the spectrum where a tunable laser is available it may be possible to use it to obtain an absorption spectrum in the same way as a tunable klystron or backward wave oscillator is used in microwave or millimetre wave spectroscopy (see Section 3.4.1). Absorbance (Equation 2.16) is measured as a function of frequency or wavenumber. This technique can be used with a diode laser to produce an infrared absorption spectrum. When electronic transitions are being studied, greater sensitivity is usually achieved by monitoring secondary processes which follow, and are directly related to, the absorption which has occurred. Such processes include fluorescence, dissociation, or predissociation, and, following the absorption of one or more additional photons, ionization. The spectrum resulting from monitoring these processes usually resembles the absorption spectrum very closely. 

Other groups have built tunable far-inffared spectrometers which do not involve high-frequency backward-wave oscillators. Verhoeve, Zwart, Versluis, Drabbels, ter Meulen, Meerts, Dymanus and McLay [61] have described a system in which fixed frequency far-inffared radiation is mixed with tunable microwave radiation in Schottky barrier diodes. This instrument has been operated up to 2.7 THz, and used to study OD and N2H+. A similar system, combined with a continuous supersonic jet, has been described by Cohen, Busarow, Laughlin, Blake, Havenith, Lee and Saykally [62], This instrument was used to study rare gas/water clusters. 

We shall develop the theory necessary to understand quasioptics, but before that, it will be useful to consider factors that influence the choice of spectrometer components such as the magnet, the source, and the detector. In Section II we will give a brief review of the performance and characteristics of homodyne detectors. In our discussion of sources, we will discuss vacuum oscillators, such as the reflex klystron and backward wave oscillator, and solid-state sources, such as the Gunn diode. We will also discuss useful criteria for selecting a magnet. 

In this configuration, the duplexer also isolates the source from the deleterious effects of back-reflected power. Such a form of protection is crucial for high powered sources such as extended interaction oscillators (Wong, 1989) or backward wave oscillators. We see, then, that our polarization-coding techniques have a number of advantages over conventional methods of duplexing. 

Krzystek et al.245 described a methodology based on backward wave oscillator sources in high frequency and field EPR which has been applied to the study of the complex [Co(N3)(Tp Bu)]. 

An extremely sensitive MODR scheme, microwave optical polarization spectroscopy (MOPS), was introduced by Ernst and Torring (1982). The most important features of MOPS are that it requires respectively 100 and 10 times lower laser and microwave intensities than MODR and results in 10 times narrower lines. This means that it will be possible to take full advantage of differential power broadening effects (Section 6.5.1) and to utilize low-power, frequency-doubled dye lasers and low-power, broadly tunable microwave sources (backward wave oscillators) in order to gain access to and systematically study perturbations. 

Lewen F, Gendriesch R, Pak I, Paveliev D G, Hepp M, Schider R and Winnewisser G 1998 Phase locked backward wave oscillator pulsed beam spectrometer in the submillimeter wave range Rev. Sci. Instmm. 69 32-9... 

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