The Propagation of an Electromagnetic Wave through a Diffusing Plasma

The propagation of an electromagnetic wave through a fully ionized diffusing plasma slab is investigated. The slab is considered to be diffusing in an ambipolar fashion, with the electron-ion collision frequency proportional to the spatial and time varying ion density. The propagation characteristics of the wave are shown to be dependent on the relationship between np and nc, the densities where the signal frequency is equal to the plasma frequency and collision frequency respectively. This relationship is temperature dependent. The reflection and transmission coefficients of the plasma are calculated as a function of signal frequency, and their behavior as the slab diffuses is investigated.     

Collision effects on propagation characteristics of electromagnetic waves in a sub-wavelength plasma slab of partially ionized dense plasmas

Intensive collisions between electrons and neutral particles in partially ionized plasmas generated in atmospheric/sub-atmospheric pressure environments can sufficiently affect the propagation characteristics of electromagnetic waves,particularly in the sub-wavelength regime.To investigate the collisional effect in such plasmas,we introduce a simplified plasma slab model with a thickness on the order of the wavelength of the incident electromagnetic wave.The scattering matrix method (SMM) is applied to solve the wave equation in the plasma slab with significant nonuniformity.Results show that the collisions between the electrons and the neutral particles,as well as the incident angle and the plasma thickness,can disturb the transmission and reduce reflection significantly.     

Research on phase shift characteristics of electromagnetic wave in plasma

The phase shift characteristics reflect the state change of electromagnetic wave in plasma sheath and can be used to reveal deeply the action mechanism between electromagnetic wave and plasma sheath. In this paper, the phase shift characteristics of electromagnetic wave propagation in plasma were investigated. Firstly, the impact factors of phase shift including electron density,collision frequency and incident frequency were discussed. Then, the plasma with different electron density distribution profiles were employed to investigate the influence on the phase shift characteristics. In a real case, the plasma sheath around the hypersonic vehicle will affect and even break down the communication. Based on the hypersonic vehicle model, we studied the electromagnetic wave phase shift under different flight altitude, speed, and attack angle. The results indicate that the phase shift is inversely proportional to the flight altitude and positively proportional to the flight speed and attack angle. Our work provides a theoretical guidance for the further research of phase shift characteristics and parameters inversion in plasma.     

Preliminary Study on Active Modulation of Polar Mesosphere Summer Echoes with the Radio Propagation in Layered Space Dusty Plasma

Radar echoes intensity of polar mesosphere summer echoes(PMSE) is greatly affected by the temperature of dusty plasma and the frequency of electromagnetic wave about the radar.In this paper,a new method is developed to explain the active experiment results of PMSE.The theory of wave propagation in a layered media is used to study the propagation characteristics of an electromagnetic wave at different electron temperatures.The simulation results show that the variation tendency of the reflected power fraction almost agrees with the results observed by radar in the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association(EISCAT).The radar echoes intensity of PMSE greatly decreases with the increase of the radio frequency and the enhancement of the electron temperature.     

The electromagnetic instability in electron flow with ion background

Electromagnetic (EM) behavior and instability resulting from the interaction between EM wave and plasma wave are analyzed based on linear perturbation theory. It is shown that the instability is caused by the the coupling between high frequency electromagnetic field and electron transverse oscillation derived from the deflection of electron longitudinal oscillation due to self-produced magnetic field. The influences of the self-produced magnetic field and plasma density on the instability are studied. In addition characteristics of EM wave propagation at different angles are investigated. The present results are of significance to new type plasma radiation source, ion accelerator and plasma diagnostic techniques.     

Numerical and Experimental Investigation on the Attenuation of Electromagnetic Waves in Unmagnetized Plasmas Using Inductively Coupled Plasma Actuator

The attenuation of electromagnetic(EM) waves in unmagnetized plasma generated by an inductively coupled plasma(ICP) actuator has been investigated both theoretically and experimentally. A numerical study is conducted to investigate the propagation of EM waves in multilayer plasma structures which cover a square flat plate. Experimentally, an ICP actuator with dimensions of 20 cm×20 cm×4 cm is designed to produce a steady plasma slab. The attenuation of EM waves in the plasma generated by the ICP actuator is measured by a reflectivity arch test method at incident waves of 2.3 GHz and 10.1 GHz, respectively. A contrastive analysis of calculated and measured results of these incident wave frequencies is presented, which suggests that the experiment accords well with our theory. As expected, the plasma slab generated by the ICP actuator can effectively attenuate the EM waves, which may have great potential application prospects in aircraft stealth.     

Influence of Plasma Pressure Fluctuation on RF Wave Propagation

Pressure fluctuations in the plasma sheath from spacecraft reentry affect radiofrequency(RF) wave propagation.The influence of these fluctuations on wave propagation and wave properties is studied using methods derived by synthesizing the compressible turbulent flow theory,plasma theory,and electromagnetic wave theory.We study these influences on wave propagation at GPS and Ka frequencies during typical reentry by adopting stratified modeling.We analyzed the variations in reflection and transmission properties induced by pressure fluctuations.Our results show that,at the GPS frequency,if the waves are not totally reflected then the pressure fluctuations can remarkably affect reflection,transmission,and absorption properties.In extreme situations,the fluctuations can even cause blackout.At the Ka frequency,the influences are obvious when the waves are not totally transmitted.The influences are more pronounced at the GPS frequency than at the Ka frequency.This suggests that the latter can mitigate blackout by reducing both the reflection and the absorption of waves,as well as the influences of plasma fluctuations on wave propagation.Given that communication links with the reentry vehicles are susceptible to plasma pressure fluctuations,the influences on link budgets should be taken into consideration.     

FDTD Analysis of Reflection of Electromagnetic Wave From a Conductive Plane Covered with Inhomogeneous Time-Varying Plasma

A finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) algorithm is applied to study the electromagnetic reflection of conduction plane covered with inhomogeneous time-varying plasma, homogeneous plasma and inhomogeneous plasma. The collision frequency of plasma is a function of electron density and plasma temperature. The number density profile follows a parabolic function. A discussion on the effect of various plasma parameters on the reflection coefficient is presented. Under the one-dimensional case, transient electromagnetic propagation through various plasmas has been obtained, and the reflection coefficients of EM wave through various plasmas are calculated under different conditions. The results illustrate that a plasma cloaking system can successfully absorb the incident EM wave.     

Influences of Turbulent Reentry Plasma Sheath on Wave Scattering and Propagation

The randomness of turbulent reentry plasma sheaths can affect the propagation and scattering properties of electromagnetic waves.This paper developed algorithms to estimate the influences.With the algorithms and typical reentry data,influences of GPS frequency and Ka frequency are studied respectively.Results show that,in terms of wave scattering,the scattering loss caused by the randomness of the turbulent plasma sheath increases with the increase of the ensemble average electron density,ensemble average collision frequency,electron density fluctuation and turbulence integral scale respectively.Also the scattering loss is much smaller than the dielectric loss.The scattering loss of Ka frequency is much less than that of the GPS frequency.In terms of wave propagation,the randomness arouses the fluctuations of amplitude and phase of waves.The fluctuations change with altitudes that when the altitude is below 30 km,fluctuations increase with altitude increasing,and when the altitude is above 30 km,fluctuations decrease with altitude increasing.The fluctuations of GPS frequency are strong enough to affect the tracking,telemetry,and command at appropriate conditions,while the fluctuations of Ka frequency are much more feeble.This suggests that the Ka frequency suffers less influences of the randomness of a turbulent plasma sheath.     

Propagation properties of broadband terahertz pulses through a bounded magnetized thermal plasma

An analysis of THz waves propagation in dense, collisional, thermal, magnetized and bounded plasma is presented. By introducing the dielectric constant of a warm magnetoplasma and using the method of impedance transformation with multiple dielectrics, the coefficients of power reflection (R) and absorption (A) are derived for a bounded plasma model by a lossless plate and a conductor plate. The effects of electron temperature, collision frequency, external magnetic field, electron density and thickness of the plasma slab on the absorption coefficient are analyzed numerically. It is found that these plasma parameters can cause significant change in the value of A. Some phenomena, for example negative power absorption, upper-hybrid resonance absorption and geometric resonances absorption, are observed and the behavior of the THz wave propagation inside the plasma model is explained numerically and physically.     

Analysis of the influence of sheath positions,flight parameters and incident wave parameters on the wave propagation in plasma sheath

The plasma sheath covering hypersonic vehicles has a significant effect on the propagation of electromagnetic waves. Based on the calculation of the flow field of a conical cylindrical, this work studies the propagation of electromagnetic waves in plasma sheath at L-band and Ku-band, and discusses the propagation characteristics in the head, side and tail of the sheath. The dielectric properties of plasma sheath are related to flight speed and altitude. A flight condition corresponds to a unique distribution of dielectric properties. For the conical cylindrical, the results show that flight speed is generally negatively correlated with the transmissivity of the plasma sheath. The reflection characteristics of electromagnetic waves at the L-band and Ku-band when obliquely incident to the plasma sheath show a downward trend. When the frequency is increased to Ku-band, the propagation characteristics of electromagnetic waves in the plasma sheath are related to the position of the sheath.     

Research on the method of dual-frequency microwave diagnosis of plasma for solving phase integer ambiguity

In this work,microwaves and terahertz waves have performed a dual-frequency combineddiagnosis in high-temperature,large-scale plasma.According to the attenuation and phase shift of electromagnetic waves in the plasma,the electron density and collision frequency of theplasma can be inversely calculated.However,when the plasma size is large and the electron density is high,the phase shift of the electromagnetic wave is large (multiple times 2π period).Due to the limitations of the test equipment,the true phase shift is difficult to test accurately or to recover reality.That is,there is a problem of phase integer ambiguity.In order to obtain a phase shift of less than 180°,a higher electromagnetic wave frequency (terahertz wave with 890 GHz)is used for diagnosis.However,the attenuation of the terahertz wave diagnosis is too small (less than 0.1 d B),only the electron density can be obtained,and the collision frequency cannot be accurately obtained.Therefore,a combined diagnosis was carried out by combining twofrequencies (microwave with 36 GHz,terahertz wave with 890 GHz) to obtain electron density and collision frequency.The diagnosis result shows that the electron density is in the range of(0.65–1.5)×10~(19)m~(-3),the collision frequency is in the range of 0.65–2 GHz,and the diagnostic accuracy is about 60%.     

Electromagnetic Wave Attenuation in Atmospheric Pressure Plasma

When an electromagnetic （EM） wave propagates in an atmospheric pressure plasma （APP） layer, its attenuation depends on the APP parameters such as the layer width, the electron density and its profile and collision frequency between electrons and neutrals. This paper proposes that a combined parameter -the product of the line average electron density n and width d of the APP layer （i.e., the total number of electrons in a unit volume along the wave propagation path） can play a more explicit and decisive role in the wave attenuation than any of the above individual parameters does. The attenuation of the EM wave via the product of n and d with various collision frequencies between electrons and neutrals is presented.     

Effect of Ion Engine Exhaust on the Radiation Field of a Dipole Antenna Part I: Infinite Slab Model for the Exhaust Ion Beam

A theory of the effect of an ion rocket engine exhaust on the radiation pattern of a dipole antenna is presented. The electromagnetic equations are combined with those describing the exhaust plasma beam to calculate its equivalent effective dielectric constant. In part I of this paper, the beam is represented by an infinite slab of a homogenous plasma medium, as is usually considered in space charge neutralization studies of this type of engine. The equations of propagation of electromagnetic waves through the beam medium, are used to calculate the total dipole radiation field. The method of steepest descent is applied for the evaluation of the integrals. It is found that the dipole radiation pattern depends greatly on the beam characteristic parameters.     

FDTD Simulation on Terahertz Waves Propagation Through a Dusty Plasma

The frequency dependent permittivity for dusty plasmas is provided by introducing the charging response factor and charge relaxation rate of airborne particles. The field equations that describe the characteristics of Terahertz(THz) waves propagation in a dusty plasma sheath are derived and discretized on the basis of the auxiliary differential equation(ADE) in the finite difference time domain(FDTD) method. Compared with numerical solutions in reference, the accuracy for the ADE FDTD method is validated. The reflection property of the metal Aluminum interlayer of the sheath at THz frequencies is discussed. The effects of the thickness, effective collision frequency, airborne particle density, and charge relaxation rate of airborne particles on the electromagnetic properties of Terahertz waves through a dusty plasma slab are investigated.Finally, some potential applications for Terahertz waves in information and communication are analyzed.     

Simulation of propagation of the HPM in the low-pressure argon plasma

The propagation of the high-power microwave (HPM) with a frequency of 6 GHz in the low-pressure argon plasma was studied by the method of fluid approximation.The two-dimensional transmission model was built based on the wave equation,the electron drift-diffusion equations and the heavy species transport equations,which were solved by means of COMSOL Multiphysics software.The simulation results showed that the propagation characteristic of the HPM was closely related to the average electron density of the plasma.The attenuation of the transmitted wave increased nonlinearly with the electron density.Specifically,the growth of the attenuation slowed down as the electron density increased uniformly.In addition,the concrete transmission process of the HPM wave in the low-pressure argon plasma was given.     

Propagation of an Electromagnetic Wave in a Mixing of Plasma-dense Neutral Gas

The propagation of a normal incident electromagnetic plane wave in a mixture of rare plasma and dense neutral gas is investigated by one dimensional model. The numerical results show that the amplitude of wave electric field is decayed dramatically and its phase is modulated obviously in a distance of a few wave lengthes due to the frequent collisions between electrons and neutrals ( the collision frequency uc is near or even larger than the wave frequency ω0),     

Low-Frequency Waves in Cold Three-Component Plasmas

The dispersion relation and electromagnetic polarization of the plasma waves are comprehensively studied in cold electron,proton,and heavy charged particle plasmas.Three modes are classified as the fast,intermediate,and slow mode waves according to different phase velocities.When plasmas contain positively-charged particles,the fast and intermediate modes can interact at the small propagating angles,whereas the two modes are separate at the large propagating angles.The near-parallel intermediate and slow waves experience the linear polarization,circular polarization,and linear polarization again,with the increasing wave number.The wave number regime corresponding to the above circular polarization shrinks as the propagating angle increases.Moreover,the fast and intermediate modes cause the reverse change of the electromagnetic polarization at the special wave number.While the heavy particles carry the negative charges,the dispersion relations of the fast and intermediate modes are always separate,being independent of the propagating angles.Furthermore,this study gives new expressions of the three resonance frequencies corresponding to the highly-oblique propagation waves in the general three-component plasmas,and shows the dependence of the resonance frequencies on the propagating angle,the concentration of the heavy particle,and the mass ratio among different kinds of particles.