Attenuation of planar electromagnetic waves by inhomogeneous plasma

Based on the possible application of low power, large area, inhomogeneous plasma to radar stealth, many standard commercial fluorescent lamps placed directly against each other were used to produce a inhomogeneous plasma layer (area 60 cm×52 cm, power 400 W). The reflection and transmission of E-waves (electric field of the waves was parallel to tube axis ) in the frequency range of 1 to 8 GHz were investigated both experimentally and numerically. The strong absorption and weak reflection of E-waves were observed near 1 to 4 GHz, and the one-way attenuation trended to a peak of 8 dB. The two-dimensional piecewise linear current density (JE) recursive convolution finite-difference time-domain (PLJERC-FDTD) algorithm was applied to simulate the transient progress of E-waves traveling throug