Study of the radiation characteristic of plasma antenna using 2-D FDTD method

Abstract

Numerical analysis of plasma monopole antenna by using full wave computational electromagnetics technique, finite difference time domain (FDTD) is presented. Here, radiation characteristic of antenna has been studied by changing of plasma parameters like, plasma frequency, degree of ionization, antenna length and presented in detail. The numerical analysis shows that the radiation of plasma column is found as efficient as metallic antenna. In addition to this radiation of plasma column for the different plasma parameters is also studied and its effect on radiation pattern is highlighted. Study explores that radiation parameters like beam-width, direction of radiation and directivity can be changed by changing the plasma parameters. It offers a new solution to the requirement for wider bandwidth in the era of communication because of its interesting behavior and also provides ability to change the radiation pattern without changing the antenna dimension.