Vacuum High-Power Microwave Load

With the latest high-power microwave source developments, high-power microwave loads are needed that can operate in ultra-high vacuum environments at power levels in excess of 3 gigawatts and pulse durations of at least 1 microsecond. There are no commercially available microwave loads that can operate at the required power, energy and vacuum levels, and prototype or specially designed loads that have been developed for high power microwave sources have not yet been able to operate at these levels. MRC proposes to develop a highly absorptive, high-vacuum-compatable load for this application using innovative materials and geometry. A version of this load tailored to existing and planned Phillips Laboratory high-power microwave sources will be designed and developed, and applications of this new technology to a much broader range of microwave shielding problems will be addressed. Commercialization issues will be facilitated by MRC's collaboration with industrial partners that have unique materials processing capabilities and that have agreed to support this effort.