Optical characterization of a high speed plasma's electromagnetic properties

Singletary, Parker James

Title:

Optical characterization of a high speed plasma's electromagnetic properties

dc.contributor.advisor	Cohen, Morris B.
dc.contributor.author	Singletary, Parker James
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Walker, Mitchell
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Gaylord, Thomas
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Simon, Sven
dc.contributor.department	Electrical and Computer Engineering
dc.date.accessioned	2019-05-29T13:59:59Z
dc.date.available	2019-05-29T13:59:59Z
dc.date.created	2018-05
dc.date.issued	2018-04-30
dc.date.submitted	May 2018
dc.date.updated	2019-05-29T13:59:59Z
dc.description.abstract	Very Low Frequency (VLF, 3-30kHz) and Low Frequency (LF, 30-300kHz) radio waves are useful due to their ability to travel around the world in the Earth-Ionosphere waveguide and excellent skin depth penetration into conductors. However, generation of these waves is limited due to the fact that their wavelengths are hundreds of meters to kilometers long. A recently proposed antenna concept known as VAIPER involves an antenna with timevarying conductivity. The antenna’s properties need to be varied at nanosecond timescales. This time-varying concept can be realized at low power with COTS components, but high speed switches cannot handle high power. A plasma is a conducting media with electrical properties that can be varied rapidly while handling high current flow. Antennas made from plasma have been constructed and tested in the past, but not with rapidly time-varying conductivity in mind. To determine a plasma’s viability as an antenna, its electromagnetic properties must be measured. Conventional plasma analysis techniques do not resolve variations in plasma at the desired speeds. The objective of the research in this thesis is to develop techniques to analyze a plasma column’s electric properties as it is ionized and de-ionized on the nanosecond timescales. Optical techniques are used to determine the time-varying conductivity of rapidly pulsed plasma. The conductivity measurements fed into a basic propagation model to determine whether the experimental plasma columns can support the VAIPER scheme.
dc.description.degree	M.S.
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1853/61168
dc.language.iso	en_US
dc.publisher	Georgia Institute of Technology
dc.subject	Fast
dc.subject	Plasma
dc.subject	VLF
dc.subject	LF
dc.subject	Antenna
dc.title	Optical characterization of a high speed plasma's electromagnetic properties
dc.type	Text
dc.type.genre	Thesis
dspace.entity.type	Publication
local.contributor.advisor	Cohen, Morris B.
local.contributor.corporatename	School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
local.contributor.corporatename	College of Engineering
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication	cbbe3a9a-e409-439e-bb9f-dc199934e71a
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication	5b7adef2-447c-4270-b9fc-846bd76f80f2
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication	7c022d60-21d5-497c-b552-95e489a06569
thesis.degree.level	Masters