Two Cavity Klystron

In the two cavity klystron, the electron beam is injected into a resonant cavity. The electron beam, accelerated by a positive potential, is constrained to travel through a cylindrical drift tube in a straight path by an axial magnetic field. While passing through the first cavity, the electron beam is velocity modulated by the weak RF signal. In the moving frame of the electron beam, the velocity modulation is equivalent to a plasma oscillation. Plasma oscillations are rapid oscillations of the electron density in conducting media such as plasmas or metals. The frequency only depends weakly on the wavelength. So in a quarter of one period of the plasma frequency, the velocity modulation is converted to density modulation, i.e. bunches of electrons. As the bunched electrons enter the second cavity they induce standing waves at the same frequency as the input signal. The signal induced in the second cavity is much stronger than that in the first.