Beam Line Design, Beam Alignment Procedure, and Initial Results for the W-Band Gain Experiment at Los Alamos

A gain experiment was performed at Los Alamos using a 120-keV 2-A cylindrical electron beam with a ridged waveguide slow-wave structure at 94 GHz, demonstrating 22 dB of amplification through a traveling-wave interaction. The structure was planar with a gap of 0.75 mm and a length of 5 cm. The 2-A electron beam was confined in a 3.2-kG axial magnetic field, with roughly a 0.5-mm diameter. The electron beam was aligned along the magnetic axis of the solenoid by scribing out its cyclotron motion on a novel optical diagnostic using a procedure that depends on varying the solenoidal field strength. The transport through the structure was verified by letting the beam drill holes in a series of thin metallic foils before insertion of the structure