Demonstration of the frequency upshifting of microwave radiation by rapid plasma creation

Author

Joshi, Chandra J. ; Clayton, C.E. ; Marsh, K. ; Hopkins, D.B. ; Sessler, A. ; Whittum, D.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., California Univ., Los Angeles, CA, USA

Volume

18

Issue

5

fYear

1990

fDate

10/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

814

Lastpage

818

Abstract

A technique for frequency-upshifting electromagnetic radiation is demonstrated. By ionizing azulene vapor contained in a resonant cavity using a laser pulse, the frequency of the incident RF wave at 33.3 GHz is upshifted by 5% with greater than 10% efficiency. Maximum frequency upshift of 2.3 times the source frequency is observed. There are two mechanisms thought to be operative in producing the observed frequency upshift: the time-dependent dielectric constant due to increasing plasma density, and rapid Q-switching of the cavity. This technique has the potential of being able to generate tunable and chirped radiation over a very broad (Δf/f≳1) frequency range

Keywords

Q-switching; electromagnetic wave propagation in plasma; permittivity; plasma density; plasma production; 33.3 GHz; Q-switching; RF wave; azulene; frequency upshifting; laser pulse; microwave radiation; plasma creation; plasma density; resonant cavity; time-dependent dielectric constant; Chirp; Dielectric constant; Electromagnetic radiation; Masers; Optical pulses; Plasma density; Pulsed laser deposition; Radio frequency; Resonance; Tunable circuits and devices;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/27.62347

Filename

62347