Numerical Suite for Gaseous Plasma Antennas Simulation

A gaseous plasma antenna (GPA) is a device in which a plasma medium is used to transmit or receive electromagnetic (EM) waves. This work is devoted to the presentation of a numerical suite for the simulation of a GPA that consists of a plasma module for the estimation of the plasma parameters (e.g., electron density profile) and its electrical response, along with an EM module to compute the antenna properties (e.g., radiation pattern and input impedance). The two problems are handled separately: first, the plasma discharge is solved, and then, the antenna properties are computed. In particular, the plasma module has been implemented on the C++ library OpenFOAM, whereas the EM module relies on the well-established commercial numerical tool CST Microwave Studio. The results of the plasma module have been compared against experimental measurements performed on a discharge driven by a hollow cathode and a cold cathode fluorescence lamp (CCFL). Finally, the numerical suite has been exploited to characterize a realistic plasma dipole: higher values of discharge current (equivalently of plasma density) allow to achieve higher maximum gain and an input impedance closer to the one of a metallic dipole. Moreover, the possibility of electronically shifting the resonance frequency by tens of megahertz has been proved.

Automated summary

A gaseous plasma antenna (GPA) is a device that uses plasma medium to transmit or receive electromagnetic waves, and a numerical suite was presented to simulate the plasma parameters and antenna properties separately. The plasma module was implemented on OpenFOAM library, while the EM module relied on CST Microwave Studio, leading to the characterization of a realistic plasma dipole with higher discharge current achieving higher gain and closer input impedance to that of a metallic dipole, and the ability to electronically shift resonance frequency.