Development of the Aurora high-power microwave source

Work begun in 1986 has continued on the reflex-diode oscillator mounted on one of the four Aurora $OM10-MV, $OM22-(Omega) pulse lines. This is a preliminary report on the most recent work, which extracted microwaves radially into 18 rectangular WR-975 waveguides around the virtual cathode. Two additional arms upstream of the anode extracted microwaves around the real cathode. Vestigial-loop, waveguide directional couplers measured the radially extracted microwave energy. The output is typically 50 to 100 J/arm, for the frequencies between 0.6 and 1.0 GHz. Effects were compared from two cathode tips differing by a factor of $OM2 in diameter. Additional parameter variations have included the anode/cathode spacing and the positioning of a second foil.