Interaction simulations of two 650 GHz BWOs using MAFIA

Teraphysics Corp. is currently developing two novel, 650 GHz backward wave oscillators (BWOs). The computations of BWO output power have depended on the classic literature for a round electron beam in a helical structure [1, 2]. This may not be directly applicable to these novel devices. Therefore, we have computed the performance of biplanar interdigital, and helical BWOs using the 3D particle-in-cell (PIC) code, MAFIA. The results indicate MAFIA simulations are in fairly good agreement with the classic approximations.