Light propagation characteristics of turbulent plasma sheath surrounding the hypersonic aerocraft*

Abstract

The characteristics of light propagation through turbulent plasma sheath surrounding the hypersonic aircraft have been studied. The turbulent flow fields around a hypersonic aircraft are given by using the Navier–Stokes (NS) equations and k–ε turbulence model. Based on the distribution of flow field, refractive index and density of the plasma sheath for a blunt cone are discussed with different flight velocities and altitudes. The refractive index is mainly influenced by the electrons in the turbulent plasma sheath. The influence of different velocities and altitudes on the features of light propagation in the turbulent plasma sheath is analyzed. The results show that as the flight speed increases or the flight altitude decreases, the refractive index fluctuation becomes larger. It is also found that the refractive index fluctuation varies with the incident wavelength. This study shows how the characteristics of an optical beam propagating through plasma sheath are affected by the incident wavelength, flight velocities, and altitudes.

The spiral phase spectrum of the composite power Gaussian vortex beam in plasma sheath turbulence

“…In this section, we review the power spectrum for PST based on which can be used for quantifying the interference of PST on the properties of the CPG vortex beam. Considering that PST is a turbulent shear flow with asymmetry and non-uniformity [23], the power spectrum of refractive index undulation can be characterized using the modified von Karman spectrum [24]…”

Spreading properties of partially coherent multi-Gaussian Schell-model and modified Bessel-correlated vortex beams in anisotropic turbulent plasma

“…This occurs because of the friction between the spacecraft and the gas environment surrounding the aircraft. A turbulent plasma envelope formed around these spacecraft will affect the quality of communication between radars and spacecraft and sometimes cause communication interruptions [14]. Recently, several studies have been conducted on the propagation of different laser beams in turbulent plasmas [15][16][17][18].…”

Propagation of terahertz waves in nonuniform plasma slab under “electromagnetic window”

“…It is widely used to analyze electromagnetic wave transmission characteristics in plasma, such as through using the Wentzel-Kramer-Brillouin (WKB) method, scattering matrix method (SMM), finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Yu et al used the WKB method to study the transmission characteristics of terahertz waves in magnetized plasmas with different electron density distributions. [26] Numerical simulation results demonstrated that the plasma density, plasma slab thickness, plasma density models, and collision frequency significantly influence the attenuation and transmittance of terahertz waves.…”