Narrowband attenuation at 157 GHz by a plasma photonic crystal

Abstract

A plasma photonic crystal operating as a notch filter at 157 GHz ( o) has been demonstrated. Comprising a 5 × 10 array of microplasma jets, having a pitch and jet diameter of 1 mm and 400 μm, respectively, this two-dimensional plasma crystal exhibits an unexpectedly narrow stopband (Δ o = 1.0 GHz FWHM = 0.6 % o) and a maximum, time-averaged attenuation of 5 % at 157.0 GHz. Simulations accurately predict the position of line center, and the assumption of a time-averaged electron density of 3 × 10 13 cm -3 is necessary for the predicted magnitude of peak attenuation (at 157 GHz) to be in agreement with experiment. Reconfigurable plasma photonic crystals, synthesized from microcavity plasmas and providing electromagnetic functionality in the 100 GHz -1 THz spectral region (300 μm ≤ λ ≤ 3 mm), are now feasible.

Microplasmas for Advanced Materials and Devices

“…Because spatially periodic, plasma‐dielectric arrays, in particular, are synthetic materials whose properties can be altered at electronic speeds, new opportunities for electromagnetic applications are now accessible. To that end, the transmission spectrum of 2D microplasma jet arrays in which the plasma columns have a pitch of 1.0 mm, was measured . Consequently, the Bragg frequency of each row of jets is 150 GHz, and experiments probing the array (in the plane orthogonal to the axes of the plasma jets) revealed the existence of a weak attenuation resonance at roughly 157 GHz.…”

The Application of Microplasma in the Terahertz Field: A Review

“…The maximum attenuation of THz radiation is only 5%, which is significantly different from the simulation results. One of the possible reasons is that the mixing of air and helium gas leads to the spatial nonuniformity of the collision frequency and plasma frequency [57]. Zhou et al stated that the nonuniformity of plasma has a more significant impact on the propagation of terahertz waves in atmospheric microplasma [58].…”

Tunable triangular and honeycomb plasma structures in dielectric barrier discharge with mesh-liquid electrodes

“…In the past decade, significant efforts have been made to study PPCs motivated by its strong dispersion and dynamical controllability. In experiments, two types of PPCs are generally realized so far [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. The first type is formed by inserting solid rods or slabs into the uniform plasma background.…”

“…Lee et al obtained a square microplasma structure in DBD [16]. Yang et al produced an array of microplasma jets by use of a dielectric barrier structure and realized attenuation of the microwaves at 157 GHz [17]. Sun et al proposed a new type of 3D PPCs fabricated by embedding multiple plasma microcolumns into a metal/dielectric/polymer scaffold [18].…”