Pulse generator utilizing superconducting apparatus

Apparatus for generating high power microwave pulses that have extremely fast rise times and are phase coherent with the signal from a microwave signal source, comprising in combination

• a superconducting cavity resonator;
• means for coupling a low power microwave signal source to said cavity resonator to charge it to a high energy level, the frequency of said signal source corresponding to the resonant frequency of said cavity resonator;
• a main waveguide section having one end thereof coupled to said cavity and the other end thereof terminating in a short circuit;
• a branch waveguide section connected at one end to said main waveguide section at a location which is an even multiple of .lambda.g/4 away from said short circuit, where .lambda.g is the wavelength of said microwave signal;
• a load connected to the other end of said branch waveguide section and;
• means for establishing at a particular time a short circuit condition across said main waveguide section at a location .lambda.g/4 from said short circuit,
• the coupling between said mircowave signal source and said resonant cavity being optimized when no short circuit condition exists across said main waveguide section,
• the occurrence of said short circuit condition discharging said resonant cavity, generating a high power pulse which is phase coherent with the signal from said microwave signal source, and additionally decoupling said microwave signal source from said resonant cavity.