Demonstration of a plasma mirror for microwaves

Abstract

A plane sheet of partially ionized plasma produced by a pulsed, hollow-cathode glow discharge in an axial magnetic field has been shown to reflect X-band microwaves as well as an equivalent sheet of metal. The plasma mirror can be established and extinguished on a time scale of about 20 mu s and could form the basis of an extremely agile radar system.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>