Investigation of the phase stability of an X-band long pulse multibeam relativistic klystron amplifier

To realize coherent high power microwave combining, an X-band long pulse multibeam relativistic klystron amplifier is designed, and the relative phase stability is investigated by three dimensions particle in cell simulation and high power microwave experiment. The simulation shows that the relative phase difference can be stabilized at gigawatt level radiation power. But the relative phase jitter increases in the experiment, then some measures are proposed to improve the stability of relative phase difference and avoid pulse shortening. A 0.98 GW radiation power with pulse duration of 160 ns is obtained in the experiment, the pulse shortening is avoided. The relative phase difference fluctuation between output microwave and input RF signal is less than ±25° in a single shot with duration of 100 ns. Then, the experiment of pulse repetition is carried out, and an output microwave with 0.98 GW radiation power at 25 Hz repetition rate is obtained. The power conversion efficiency is about 35% with pulse durat...