The interaction of polarized microwaves with planar arrays of femtosecond laser-produced plasma filaments in air

The interaction of polarized microwaves with subwavelength arrays of parallel plasma filaments, such as those produced by the propagation of high-power femtosecond laser pulses in ambient air, was investigated by calculating the reflection and transmission coefficients as a function of the incidence angles using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The time evolution of these coefficients was calculated and compared with experiments. It is found that the plasma filaments array becomes transparent when the polarization of the microwave radiation is perpendicular to the filaments axis, regardless the incidence angle of the microwave with respect to the filaments, except near grazing incidence. Increasing the filaments electron density or diameter, or decreasing the electron collision frequency or filaments spacing, decreases the transmission and increases the reflection. Transmission decreases when increasing the number of filament layers while reflection remains unchanged as the number of filament layers exceeds a given number (similar to 3 in our case). Transmission slightly increases when disorder is introduced in the filament arrays. The detailed calculation results are compared with those obtained from the simple birefringent slab model, which provides a convenient framework to calculate approximately the properties of filament arrays. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4792160]