From Letters to the Editor

Remarks on V. M. Lopukhin’s Article “A New Type of Microwave Amplifier”

In volume 15, issue 4 (April 1950) of the journal Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk, my article “A New Type of Microwave Amplifier” was published, devoted to the electron-wave tube—a new type of microwave amplifier and generator in which the interaction of parallel electron beams is used. The article emphasized that the theory of the electron-wave tube, created by American physicists in 1949, is a special case of a more general theory of many-electron systems developed by A. A. Vlasov in 1938.

G. I. Babat kindly drew my attention to the fact that the idea of the practical use of the interaction of parallel electron beams also belongs to Soviet science. Thus, the author’s certificate “Device for Accelerating Electrons” (G. I. Babat, author’s certificate No. 72707, class 21 D., 35, filed May 14, 1941) describes a “device for accelerating electrons, distinguished by the use of 2 electron beams, one of which, the more powerful one, is modulated by an auxiliary generator, exciting in the waveguide an electromagnetic field serving to accelerate the electrons of the other beam crossing this field.”

Although this author’s certificate describes an electron accelerator (and not a generator), there is no doubt that the idea of transferring energy from one electron stream to another is expressed here with complete clarity.

Thus, Soviet science has priority both in creating the theory of the electron-wave tube and in proposing the practical use of transferring energy from one electron stream to another.

V. M. Lopukhin