A study of the dynamic response of plasma filled microwave cavity resonators
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation details research done to study microwave cavity resonators and their dynamic actuation using laboratory pulsed plasma discharges. The work is encompassed in a broader research effort to study the utility of gaseous plasmonics in controlling the propagation of electromagnetic waves. In support of this effort, I present numerical and experimental findings that together describe with consistency the transient behavior of laboratory pulsed plasma discharges through their interaction with electromagnetic resonant modes. The research contained in this thesis combines the fields of microwave engineering, plasma physics, and photonic crystals in novel ways that enables actively tunable electromagnetic devices at high frequencies. Two devices are presented, the first consisting of a metallic two-post 14 GHz resonator located inside a WR62 waveguide section, and the second consisting of a hexagonal lattice photonic crystal with a defect state at 27 GHz. The microwave transmission through both devices is measured during a 150 ns pulsed plasma discharge and pulsed microwaves are seen of various widths and delays, depending on the transmission frequency. In this way, the resonant cavities are shown to have pulse shaping properties, with the photonic crystal cavity able to generate pulses with widths and delays ranging from tens of microseconds down to hundreds nanoseconds. A fluid plasma simulation was developed to model with high fidelity the transient dynamics of laboratory plasma discharges. The simulated plasma properties are used in conjunction with microwave theory to predict and provide insight into the experimentally measured microwave transmission signals. The results of the modeling efforts are compared with the experimental findings and show good qualitative and quantitative agreement, such as predicting the magnitude and time of the maximum frequency shift within the cavity within ten percent error. Lastly, the nonlinear coupling between high power microwaves and the plasma-cavity system are studied. It is shown that both resonator devices are capable of microwave plasma breakdown, suggesting that they could be used as nonlinear power limiting devices or plasma sources. Additionally, the coupling between high power microwaves and pulsed plasma discharges is also studied. Here, the previously elusive microwave pulses generated due to plasma ionization were finally captured due to the nonlinear behavior of high power microwaves interacting with the plasma ignition process, and pulse widths and delays were measured as low as several hundred nanoseconds.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2018; ©2018 |
| Publication date | 2018; 2018 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Biggs, David R |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Cappelli, Mark A. (Mark Antony) |
| Thesis advisor | Cappelli, Mark A. (Mark Antony) |
| Thesis advisor | Close, Sigrid, 1971- |
| Thesis advisor | D'Amico, Simone |
| Degree committee member | Close, Sigrid, 1971- |
| Degree committee member | D'Amico, Simone |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | David R. Biggs. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2018. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2018 by David Robert Biggs
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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