Thermal effects on the efficiency of Doppler-shift dominated cyclotron masers

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Abstract
It is demonstrated by particle simulations that a relativistic electron beam with 1.25 MeV energy, 1.5 kA current, and 0.5% momentum spread can convert 25% of its energy into electromagnetic radiation based on the Doppler‐shift dominated cyclotron maser mechanism. However, the increase in beam thermal spread reduces the available free energy Δγ=γ0−γR by increasing the beam resonant energy γR where γ0 is the initial beam energy and substantially decreases the conversion efficiency. Further increase in thermal spread eventually changes the saturation mechanism from phase trapping to energy depletion.