Experimental study of electromagnetic wave scattering from a gyrotropic gaseous plasma column

• Published in: Applied physics letters 2022-05, Vol.120 (22)
• Main Authors: Houriez, Luc S., Mehrpour Bernety, Hossein, Rodríguez, Jesse A., Wang, Benjamin, Cappelli, Mark A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied physics; Crystal structure; Cyclotron frequency; cyclotron resonance; Cyclotrons; Cylindrical plasmas; Cylindrical waves; Discharge; Electromagnetic radiation; electromagnetism; ENGINEERING; Incident waves; magnetic materials; Metamaterials; Photonic crystals; photonic materials; photonic techniques and applications; physics; plasma discharges; Plasma frequencies; plasma properties and parameters; scattering; topological insulator; Topological insulators; Wave fronts; Wave scattering; Waveguides
• ISSN: 0003-6951; 1077-3118
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0095038

We experimentally demonstrate the controlled scattering of incident transverse-electric electromagnetic waves from a gyrotropic magnetized plasma cylindrical discharge. Scattered electromagnetic waves can bend left and right by changing the external magnetic field of a plasma rod. Measured scattered wavefronts are in good agreement with electromagnetic simulations. A gyrotropic response is observed for incident wave frequencies ranging from 3.5 to 5.6 GHz for conditions corresponding to a ratio of cyclotron frequency to plasma frequency, ω c e / ω p ≈ 0.16. The observation of a gyrotropic response from cylindrical plasma discharges paves the way for their use as building blocks for future devices such as magnetized plasma photonic crystals, topological insulators, plasma metamaterials, non-reciprocal waveguide structures, and other devices, which require a tunable gyrotropic response from centimeter to meter-scale materials with application-specific geometry.