Some observations on gyrotron interaction models

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Abstract
The main object of the paper is to present a new model of the gyrotron interaction mechanism and to suggest that many current models are both inadequate and misleading. The model is based on the concept of a filamentary/tubular ‘beamlet’ and its interaction with an electromagnetic field set up in a waveguide. It is shown that, contrary to the currently accepted view, five different energy transfer mechanisms can be recognized, three of them acting in the transverse and two in the axial direction. Four of the five mechanisms act in pairs, the two members of each pair opposing each other; one mechanism is due to the relativistic variation of electron mass and the other to the magnetic component of the RF field. It is also shown that when a gyrotron is operating near the cutoff frequency of a TE mode the effects due to the relativity variation of electron mass predominate, the amplification process then being at its maximum. A detailed and critical discussion of the existing literature is included, in particular in the last two sections of the paper.