Factors influencing the electromagnetic transmission of mercury vapor discharge plasma tube arrays

Abstract

Low-pressure Mercury vapor discharge plasma tubes were used to form arrays to control electromagnetic transmission. The internal and external factors influencing a discharge tube array were adjusted to expand the electromagnetic wave manipulation ability. The plasma electron density (n e) is the key parameter for electromagnetic wave manipulation. Microwave transmission was used to diagnose n e under different working conditions. Simulations and electromagnetic transmission measurements were used to investigate the behavior of the effect of internal and external factors on electromagnetic transmission. Simulation results indicated that increasing n e increased the attenuation, widened the attenuation bandwidth, and shifted the attenuation band to higher fRequencies. The experimental results showed that increasing the discharge power significantly increased n e and widened the strong attenuation frequency band. n e first increased and then decreased when the gas pressure was increased. The tube diameter affected both n e and the plasma layer thickness, and the attenuation band of the plasma tube array moved to a low frequency with an increase in tube diameter. The primary and secondary order of the influence of external factors other than power on the attenuation bandwidth obtained via an orthogonal experiment is as follows: gas composition > tube diameter > pressure. The maximum attenuation bandwidth for 10 dB attenuation was 9.85 GHz. The results show that the attenuation control ability of the plasma tube array can be significantly improved by adjusting the external factors of the plasma tube.