Transfer of microwave radiation in sliding modes of plasma waveguides

Abstract

We study experimentally and theoretically a new regime of the sliding-mode propagation of microwave radiation in plasma waveguides in atmospheric air. We show that a plasma waveguide of large radius (much larger than the wavelength of the signal) can be developed in the photoionization of air molecules by the KrF-laser emission. We demonstrate the transfer of a 38 GHz microwave signal to a distance of up to 60 m. The mechanism of the transfer is determined by total internal reflection of the signal on the optically less dense walls of the waveguide. We perform the calculations for waveguides of various radii and microwave radiation wavelengths and show that the propagation increases with decrease of the wavelengths and reaches several kilometers for submillimeter waves.