Broadband microwave characteristics of a novel coaxial gridded hollow cathode argon plasma

Ruilin Gao; Chengxun Yuan; Hui Li; Jieshu Jia; Zhong-Xiang Zhou; Ying Wang; Xiaoou Wang; Jian Wu

doi:10.1063/1.4960393

Broadband microwave characteristics of a novel coaxial gridded hollow cathode argon plasma

Rev Sci Instrum. 2016 Aug;87(8):083506. doi: 10.1063/1.4960393.

Authors

Ruilin Gao¹, Chengxun Yuan¹, Hui Li¹, Jieshu Jia¹, Zhong-Xiang Zhou¹, Ying Wang¹, Xiaoou Wang¹, Jian Wu²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China.
² National Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Environment (LEME), China Research Institute of Radio Wave Propagation, Beijing 102206, China.

PMID: 27587122
DOI: 10.1063/1.4960393

Abstract

The interaction between microwave and large area plasma is crucially important for space communication. Gas pressure, input power, and plasma volume are critical to both the microwave electromagnetic wave phase shift and electron density. This paper presents a novel type of large coaxial gridded hollow cathode plasma having a 50 cm diameter and a 40 cm thickness. Microwave characteristics are studied using a microwave measurement system that includes two broadband antennae in the range from 2 GHz to 18 GHz. The phase shift under varying gas pressure and input power is shown. In addition, the electron density ne, which varies from 1.2 × 10(16) m(-3) to 8.7 × 10(16) m(-3) under different discharge conditions, is diagnosed by the microwave system. The measured results accord well with those acquired by Langmuir Probe measurement and show that the microwave properties in the large volume hollow cathode discharge significantly depend on the input power and gas pressure.