Characteristics of Arbitrarily-Shaped Helical Groove Slow-Wave Structure Loaded with a Concentric Dielectric-Rod

The dielectric-rod is loaded on the central axis of the arbitrarily-shaped helical groove slow-wave structure. Meanwhile, the profile of the groove is replaced by a series of continuous rectangular steps. The unified dispersion equation of the arbitrarily-shaped helical groove waveguide loaded with a concentric dielectric-rod is obtained by means of a combination of filed-matching method and admittance-matching technique. Then, the effect of the change of groove shape and the dielectric-rod parameters on the dispersion and coupling impedance is approached by theory calculation. The results show that: loaded with dielectric-rod, the bandwidth of the helical groove traveling wave tube (TWT) is effectively broadened, but the coupling impedance is reduced. Among the five different groove shapes, the triangle-type groove has the widest bandwidth but the smallest coupling impedance, and the swallow-tailed-type groove has the narrowest bandwidth but the largest coupling impedance.