Numerical simulation of multi-carrier microwave breakdown in air-SF6 mixtures

Abstract

In this paper, the multi-carrier microwave breakdown in air-SF6 mixtures is analyzed with the spectral-element time-domain method. In this process, a three-dimensional multi-physics model coupling Maxwell's equations with electron fluid equations is established. The tail-erosion and frequency shift phenomenon caused by multi-carrier microwave breakdown in different proportions of air-SF6 mixtures can be observed. Numerical results demonstrate that multi-carriers will make the wireless communication system sensitive to microwave breakdown. On the other hand, the different proportions of air-SF6 mixtures can obviously improve the breakdown threshold to inhibit the multi-carrier microwave breakdown, which is favorable to the propagation of multi-carrier microwaves in air. Meanwhile, increasing the pressure can suppress the frequency shift phenomenon, and the proportion of different SF6 in the mixed gas has little effect on the frequency shift of the transmitted wave. Our research provides theoretical guidance for comprehensively exploring the characteristics and physical mechanism of multi-carrier microwave breakdown in air-SF6 mixtures and is helpful for protection of microwave devices and plasma application.