Anechoic chamber - This chamber prevents
the electromagnetic energy from 'echoing' (hence an-echoic). This is put at the end of our system and samples the microwave power through the horn pictured. In the lower left the opening where the microwave enters is faintly seen.
Directional coupler - This is a high power
piece of microwave hardware that has X- and Ku- band waveguide arms to
sample the microwave power at the end of our system. A water (methanol) chamber is put on the end of it and we also can calculate our power by measuring the amount of heat the water (methanol) absorbs.
Electron gun- This is a quick snap of Bart
taping up the system to enable the gun to move into position. We see the gun wrapped in aluminum foil and is red.
Inner conductor - This is the inner conductor
of my microwave circuit. Since it is a coaxial circuit, we have both an inner and outer conductor. Copper and ceramic and some steel pieces are stacked up like washers on a stainless steel spine and held together through the center of the spine with a spring.
Pulse forming network #1 |
Pulse forming network #2
These pictures show the large tanks that help form the electron pulse that fires. These are large banks of inductors (the copper spirals) and capacitors (they are underneath the inductors). They hold a voltage of about 40-50 kV for 10-100 msec and then fire it off towards a large, 22:1 pulse tranformer, which will step up the voltage to 300 to 500 kV.
System at rest - Here is a picture of the
magnets and the magnet table and the gun in red at the right. This is usually how things look when everything is assembled and operational. The circuit is inside the magnets.
Assembled vacuum jacket circuit - This is a
picture of the assembled tube for SH1 - the first second harmonic
system. We see the scale is about a foot and the nose and tail pieces poking out of either end. This is the part that gets swapped in and out of the system for tests.
Under the diode stacks - This is really
a part of the pulse modulator. It is a picture of the circuits underneath our diode stacks. We see a parallel combination of a resistor, capacitor, and diode that serves as an end-of-line clipper for our modulator pulse. It protects the sensitive gas switches that trigger our system from being hurt by shorted pulses that would flip polarity and travel back along our system.
Vacuum window - Here is a picture of the
vacuum window. This piece of alumina serves to divide the vacuum from the non-vacuum. It was designed to not affect the microwaves as the travel through it, yet be strong enough not to arc out or be crushed by vacuum stress. Neat piece of equipment.