Nonlinear Behavior of Plasma Antenna Vibrator

This paper presents the results of investigation of nonlinear properties for plasma antenna vibrator with a length of 330 mm and a diameter of 12.7 mm based on commercial luminescent lamp filled with argon gas. The investigation was carried out in the frequency range of 10 MHz-3 GHz. The vibrator was found to have a half-wave resonance at a frequency of about 280 MHz, that is, 1.6 times lower than that for half-wave resonance for a metal rod antenna of the same length. It is shown that inside the vibrator, a generation of second and third harmonics exists, whose power goes up as a second and third order of incoming power on the carrier frequency. For an incoming signal with level of +30 dBm, it was found that the second harmonic is -34.7 dBc, and the third is -45 dBc. The existence of higher harmonics as a feature of plasma medium can be a limitation for transmitter power when such a type of vibrator will be used as a transmitting antenna. In addition, the applied technique in the investigation, when the vibrator is connected with weak coupling in the measuring circuit, can be employed for the study of nonlinear properties for the plasma medium.