Properties of arrays of microplasmas: application to control of electromagnetic waves

Abstract

Microplasma arrays (MAs) are being investigated as a method to control the propagation of electromagnetic waves. The use of MAs as an electromagnetic wave controlling material is attractive as the electrical properties of MAs can be rapidly changed through combinations of the choice of operating conditions (e.g. pressure, gas mixture), the spatial distribution of the plasma and applied voltage waveforms. In this paper, results from a computational investigation of the plasma properties of small arrays of microplasmas are discussed. The model systems are arrays of microplasmas sustained in rare gases at pressures of up to 100 Torr in a sealed chamber. Individual plasma cells are ≈100 μm in size. Pulsed dc voltage waveforms having widths of 30 ns are applied at repetition rates of up to 10 MHz. The cross-talk between plasma cells was investigated, as well as the consequences of gas heating and sequencing of the pulses. We found that even without physical barriers between the plasma cells to control cross-talk between cells, the individual character of each cell can be retained; however the plasma cells were not completely independent. The diffusion of metastable excited atomic states and small fluxes of ions did enable adjacent cells to operate at lower voltages. The ability to control microwave propagation through waveguides was computationally investigated by placing a MA inside a standard waveguide and examining the resulting transmission coefficients. We found that for frequencies of tens to 100 GHz, the transmitted power could be controlled by the spatial distribution of the MA cells with respect to the modal structure of the wave.

The Application of Microplasma in the Terahertz Field: A Review

“…In 2017, Kushner et al considered the interaction between microplasma cells and simulated an open low-pressure surface microplasma array to modulate subterahertz wave propagation. It reveals that the diffusion of metastable atoms or ions between microplasma cells significantly impacts the subterahertz wave transmittance and the discharge characteristics of the microplasma [52]. In 2020, with the transfer matrix method, Wu et al studied the effects of the collision frequency on the terahertz bandgap structure and transmission characteristics of a microplasma photonic crystal, as shown in Figure 6a.…”

Rydberg states population via three-body and dissociative recombination in low-temperature plasmas of rare gas mixtures

“…The plasmas of rare gas mixtures are of great interest for many applications in plasma physics, optoelectronics, laser physics and material processing, including VUV radiation sources [1,2], control of electromagnetic wave propagation [3], alternating current plasma displays [4,5], microplasma arrays [6,7], plasma etching [8], development of optically pumped rare gas lasers [9,10] and high-power xenon lasers [11,12]. The kinetics of electronic transitions and excited level population in such plasmas are the topics of ongoing experimental [13][14][15][16][17] and theoretical [18][19][20][21] studies.…”

Predictive modeling of plasmas for gaseous plasmonics

“…Some recent numerical simulations have been carried out to study electromagnetic control with plasmas, such as with particle in cell simulations of nanosecond microdischarges for optical switching [25]. Other authors have used fluid models to study the resonant interactions of a single micro-plasma with high frequency electromagnetic waves [24], the limitations of different model approximations for plasmas in resonant structures [26], and the ensemble effect of arrays of microdischarges at controlling the propagation of microwaves through rectangular waveguides [27].…”