The study of spatial dispersion effect on electromagnetic waves propagation in the warm non-uniform re-entry plasma sheath

Abstract

“Communication blackout” is such a consequence that the attenuation of electro-magnetic (EM) waves becomes drastic when the frequency of EM waves is near or below the oscillation frequency of plasmas. Deep comprehension on the propagation characteristics of EM waves in the plasma sheath plays an important role in solving this issue. However, relevant works in the literature are almost based on the cold plasma sheath model, neglecting the temperature of the plasmas as well as the spatial dispersion effect. We apply COMSOL Multiphysics software to simulate and study the spatial dispersion effect in the warm plasma sheath in this paper. The mode conversion between EM waves and Langmuir waves in the warm plasmas is observed. The characteristics of field distributions in the warm plasma sheath are different from the cold plasma sheath distinctly, when the resonance between EM waves and the plasmas happens. The reflection and absorption coefficients are also influenced accordingly. The research in this paper gives an insight into EM waves propagation in the warm re-entry plasma sheath and supplies a better comprehension on the interaction between EM waves and the plasma sheath.