Focusing and amplification of electromagnetic waves by time reversal in an leaky reverberation chamber

In this article, time reversal is used to generate high power microwave pulses from a low power arbitrary wave generator. We use a reverberation chamber with an aperture on the front face and we take advantage of the pulse compression property of time reversal. High amplitude peaks are generated outside the chamber thanks to the long spreading time of the signals inside. We study the amplitude of this peak and the width of the focal spot with respect to the different experimental parameters. A gain of 18 dB compared to a directive antenna of the same aperture is obtained. (C) 2010 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.