Experimental Study on a Self-Phase-Shifting Cross Vibrator Plasma Antenna Array

The study designs a type of plasma antenna array with four quartz fluorescent lamps, which can be classified into linear polarization and circular polarization (CP). The antenna arrays are designed into a self-phase-shifting cross shape, and the kHz alternating current power supplies are adopted in the proposed antenna arrays. Experimental results show that the cross vibrator antenna can realize not only impedance and pattern reconstruction, but also the polarization transformation. Moreover, the horizontal polarization, vertical polarization, and CP can be mutually transformed into each other by changing the vibrator operation mode. It is noted that we can easily transform the left-hand circular polarization and right-hand circular polarization into each other via modifying vibrator length and plasma density. Compared with a conventional metal antenna with the same shape, polarization conversion can be realized in an easier yet faster way via the help of self-phase-shifting plasma antenna array.

Automated summary

This study presents the design of a plasma antenna array with four quartz fluorescent lamps, capable of transforming different polarization modes by changing the operation mode of the oscillator. Compared to conventional metal antennas, the plasma antenna array enables faster and simpler polarization conversion.