The effect of temperature variation on the performance of metallic mesh reflector surfaces

Recent studies of gold-plated materials exposed to the plasma discharge around a space vehicle in low earth orbit have shown that oxidation takes place which dramatically alters the electrical properties of the material. The oxidation causes a change in the surface impedance of the plated material. In addition, if the material is a woven wire mesh with gold-plated wires, it is predicted that the wire-to-wire contact points of the mesh will be transformed from perfectly conducting contacts to Schottky barrier junctions. The impedance of the Schottky barrier junction varies widely and nonlinearly with temperature. The authors investigated how temperature variation affects the reflection, transmission, and ohmic losses of woven wire mesh surfaces. Reflection and transmission coefficients and ohmic losses were calculated over a range of temperatures and angles of incidence and for both polarizations.<>