Single-frequency reflection characterisation of shock tube excited plasma

Plasma has been of great interest to engineers and scientists during the past few decades due to its wide applications. Besides, the plasma-sheath-caused lose of communication (i.e. re-entry blackout) that happens when a spacecraft re-enters the earth atmosphere is still a problem to be solved. The microwave characterisation of shock tube excited plasma has been an important method for exploring the transmission and reflection of microwave signals in plasma. The existing frequency sweep or multi-frequency technologies are not desirable for the characterisation of high-speed time-varying plasma generated in shock tubes. Hence, in this paper a novel signal-frequency approach is proposed to measure both electron density and collision frequency of plasma in shock tube. As frequency sweep is not required in this method, it is extremely suitable for characterising the shock tube excited high-speed time-varying plasma. The genetic algorithm is applied to extract electron density and collision frequency from the reflection coefficient. Simulation results demonstrate excellent accuracy for electron density within 1010∼1012 cm−3 and collision frequency within 5×1010∼1012 Hz. This work paves the way for a fast and compact microwave reflection measurement of shock tube generated plasma.