Early Quasioptics of Near-Millimeter and Submillimeter Waves in IRE-Kharkov, Ukraine: from Ideas to the Microwave Pioneer Award

Early Quasioptics of Near-Millimeter and Submillimeter Waves in IRE-Kharkov, Ukraine: From Ideas to the Microwave Pioneer Award I Irina A Tishchenko and Alexander I. Nosich n 2000, Ukrainian scientist Yevgeny (QO) of millimeter and submillimeter he has been a senior scientist in IRE and M. Kuleshov was awarded the waves. Together with a few laboratories participated in all projects of the QO IMicrowave Pioneer Award from the in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod, department.) In addition, papers [5]–[9] IEEE Microwave Theory and IRE-Kharkov had become a major were valuable sources of general infor- Techniques Society. He received it for USSR center in this area of R&D mation on QO. the development, in 1964–1972, of the already in the late 1940s when first A. hollow dielectric beam-waveguide Slutskin [2] and then his colleagues Short Survey of the (HDB) technology and measuring tech- worked there on millimeter-wave mag- Millimeter-Wave Quasioptics niques of the near-millimeter and sub- netrons. Already in 1960, a team of IRE It should be noted that H. Hertz and his millimeter wavelength ranges, with staff including Kuleshov was awarded followers, notably, millimeter-wave pio- main application in hot plasma diag- a Lenin Prize, the most prestigious in neers P. Lebedev in Moscow and J. Bose nostics (Figure 1). Yevgeny M. the Soviet Union, for the development in Calcutta, already used basic QO prin- Kuleshov was born in 1922 in of various millimeter-wave devices and ciples in 1888–1900 [6]. At that time, Voronezh, now Russia. In 1946, he techniques. It should be emphasized parabolic reflectors, dielectric lenses became a postgraduate student of A. that Kuleshov and his colleagues for and prisms, and other essentially opti- Slutskin at the Ukrainian Institute of years had been on the practical side of cal devices were successfully used to Physics and Technology (UIPT). R&D, and most of their technical demonstrate the common nature of the Starting in 1949, he worked in the UIPT reports remained classified as done for “ether waves” and visible light. Not department of electromagnetic oscilla- the USSR Committee for Atomic surprisingly, this science was then tions, and headed the laboratory of Energy (CAE), Ministry of Radio called “Hertzian optics.” However, receiving and measuring devices there Industry (MRI), and Ministry of despite initial enthusiasm, the following from 1953 to 1955. In 1957, he earned Defense (MD). A chapter [3] written by years showed an abrupt decay in the his Ph.D. degree. After IRE branched Kuleshov, thanks to the insistence of the R&D of microwave. A part of the reason off of UIPT in 1955 and until 1988, he book editor, was a rare exception. was that the only available sources, headed the department of QO there; Therefore, we would like to present spark-gap ones, were not practical. now he is a leading scientist. Besides here some details of this activity based More substantially, rapid progress of the awards mentioned here, he holds on the declassified reports and the the radio diverted the interest of the title of Honorary Inventor of USSR interviews of Kuleshov and another researchers, the public, and the military (1989). This is recognition of the great key member of the QO team, Moisei S. to much longer waves. The next, and contribution done by Kuleshov and his Yanovski [4]. (Moisei S. Yanovski was the main, period of progress in team [1] of the Institute of Radio born in 1923 in Kiev, Ukraine. After microwaves and then millimeter waves Physics and Electronics of the National graduation from KPI, he was a Ph.D. came in the 1940–1970s. Breakthrough Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (IRE student of A. Slutskin in UIPT and was achieved thanks to the invention of NASU, Kharkov) to the quasioptics earned his degree in 1954; since 1955, the multicavity magnetron oscillators 32 December 2003 and generous military funding of radar between the transmitting and receiving tion or absorption. Besides, the princi- R&D. Both Kuleshov and Yanovski antenna. Gaussian-beam elements were pal mode itself is either a classic QO graduated, in 1946, from a Kiev added early on to a designer’s arsenal Gaussian beam or a mode whose field Polytechnic Institute class of S. for making various laboratory-measur- is close to such a beam, like in HDB. Tetelbaum (1910–1958). This remarkable ing systems, foremost for spectroscopic Thus, the principles of the field confine- young professor developed an early analysis [8], [9]. In parallel, an alterna- ment in the cross section and self-filter- gyrotron oscillator, studied microwave tive QO technology was proposed: ing are basic ones. The idea of periodic wireless power transmission, and completely closed metallic oversize phase correction of a free-space became enthusiastic about a city bus waveguides (OSW), thanks to reduced microwave beam, to compensate for its supplied with microwaves beamed attenuation as compared with standard divergence, was very natural. G. from a distance. A great fan of waveguides. By 1963, components Goubau authored the first publications microwaves, he tried to infect his stu- based on rectangular OSW with the on the periodic lens and iris transmis- dents, including future inventors of wave H10 that worked at the frequency sion lines in 1961 [14], [15]. Within the HDB, with this virus. Now one can see up to 350 GHz were developed. next several years, active R&D in this that he was successful in doing so. A few years later than OSW, two area took place both in the West and in By the end of the 1950s, centimeter- compromised design ideas emerged: the Soviet Union. V. Shevchenko at the and partially millimeter-wave ranges discrete (open) beam-waveguides Institute of Radio Engineering and had been explored. A general trend was formed by periodic lenses, irises, or Electronics (now IRE RAS, Moscow) to switch to higher frequencies beyond reflectors, and continuous (closed) patented a waveguide with lenses microwaves, where QO principles beam-waveguides shaped as OSWs inclined at the Brewster angle to the promised lower losses and had obvi- with lossy-dielectric, layered-dielectric, axis, to reduce the reflections [16]. In ously better validity. This implied using or metal-dielectric inner walls. The lat- 1963, B. Katsenelenbaum of IRE- electromagnetic waves in the form of ter lines were later referred to as HDB Moscow published a periodic reflector beams having effective spot size w and metal-dielectric waveguides. Two beamguide [17] just a half-year before J. greater than the wavelength λ, howev- common points exist for each of them. Degenford [18]. Competition between er, smaller than the dimensions of scat- Each system works with a correspond- open lines has left the victory to the terers or cross sections of waveguides, ing principal mode while the higher reflector beam waveguide, still in use D : λ<w < D. As, however, D could order ones experience increased radia- today for antenna feeding and plasma be just several λ, a joint account of both ray and diffraction phenomena was necessary. The term “quasioptics” was apparently coined by E. Karplus in the United States in 1931 [10] and then for- gotten for 30 years, although a parallel term “microwave optics” was used in the 1950s. Here, QO principles were successfully applied in the reflector and lens antenna technology. Finally, L. Felsen, who was a prime organizer of the famous symposium held in the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, New York in June 1964 [11], should be credit- ed for giving a firm ground to QO. The following year a translation of symposium proceedings into Russian was ini- tiated in Moscow [12]. It was printed as a book Kvazioptika (Figure 2), which soon became a bible for the USSR millimeter-wave laboratories. Three years later, this term was routinely used in the book [13], which summarized the USSR experience. The 1960s were the “golden age” of QO and witnessed numerous attempts of designing various new transmission lines. The first Figure 1. 1988. Tokamak T-15, the USSR nuclear fusion machine with superconducting idea was to use simply a directed wave magnetic system. The array of QO beam waveguides forming interferometer for plasma beam propagating in free space sensing is marked with a circle. December 2003 33 heating. As for the HDB, one of the pio- transmission line for a set of wide- West, whereas the second in the Soviet neering and most known in this field range millimeter- and submillimeter- Union, in part because of the obsession was a theoretical study published in wave measuring circuits [20]. of its political leaders with nuclear 1964 by E. Marcatili and R. Schmeltzer It must be noted that in the area of fusion that was based on the invention [19]. They considered in greater detail long-distance communication, the time of the Tokamak principle. the structure first solved by J. Stratton of the millimeter waves was over in the in his Electromagnetic Theory, i.e., circu- early 1970s when optical fibers came Emergence of the HDB Concept lar cylindrical channel in unbounded into being. Besides periodic attempts to Between 1954 and 1961, Kuleshov dielectric medium, and found out that develop millimeter-wave battlefield and his team had already accumulated it could support quasi-single-mode radar, two nondefense applications rich experience in developing waveguide propagation. Independently and half a became a driving force in QO: spec- measuring devices in the whole millime- year earlier, Kuleshov selected a similar troscopy and nuclear plasma diagnos- ter-wave range. By that time, ordered by channel when designing a new basic tics. The first attracted attention in the the 5th Chief Directorate (CD-5) of MD, a series of projects had been performed [21]–[24] with the small-size single-mode waveguides for λ = 4.1 to 1.7 mm.

Load more