Nonlinear saturation characteristics of a dielectric Cherenkov maser

Abstract

The nonlinear saturation state in a dielectric Cherenkov maser (DCM) with the TM mode and the intense relativistic electron beam is analysed from the nonlinear formulation based on the cold fluid-Maxwell equations. We obtain the nonlinear efficiency and the final operation frequency under consideration of the effects of the beam current, the beam energy and the dielectric materials and show that the characteristics of a DCM instability has a strong resemblance to that of the relativistic two stream instability by the coherent trapping of electrons in a single most-unstable wave. Finally, the nonlinear analysis shows that the Cherenkov maser operation with a lower-energy beam can be more efficient in the higher frequency regime for the case of the high power DCM with a high current.