Combining gigawatt level X-band high power microwave beams with an overmoded circular waveguide diplexer

The high power microwave (HPM) beam combining results at X-band with an overmoded waveguide diplexer are presented. As the key device for the beam combining experiments, the diplexer is designed, fabricated, and tested. Then the beam combining experiments under short and long pulses are performed at HPM source, respectively. The experiment results reveal that short and long pulse HPM beams have been successfully operated without microwave breakdown at 3-GW with pulse duration of 25 ns and 1.3-GW with pulse duration of 96 ns. According to the experiments, conservative breakdown thresholds for the diplexer are concluded to be 800 kV/cm and 550 kV/cm, respectively, under the short and long pulse HPM conditions. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.