Change of radiation pattern in a plasma monopole antenna

Abstract

In the present work, we have numerically solved the dispersion equation of the surface wave propagating on a uniform collisional plasma column. The electric field and surface current distributions have been computed in different situations. We have investigated the effect of plasma frequency variation on the spatial distribution of the surface current. Results show that varying the electron density of the plasma column enables the plasma column to work as a plasma monopole antenna with a fixed geometrical structure and excited frequency which is able to create different radiation patterns. Our numerical analysis also shows that a little change in the radius of the plasma column has a strong influence on the current distribution at the excited frequency in RF region. This effect can be ignored in the usual (metallic) antenna while it is very important in designing of the plasma monopole antenna.