Enhanced microwave absorption rates in stealth plasma

Summary form only given. After our previous advancement for the Appleton-Hartree theory by extending the existing theory to include the plasma thermal effect, we present enhanced absorption rates for microwaves within the C-band from warm plasma. Thermal effects are important in electromagnetic wave propagation in the ionosphere as well as in the emerging applications of stealth technology.The derivation of the magneto-ionic dispersion equation in warm plasma immersed in a uniform magnetic field was presented in a previous work, where the obtained expressions extend the well known Appleton-Hartree, magneto-ionic formula of stationary cold plasma to the case of warm plasma. In the present work, we study the propagation constant and reflection coefficient for characterizing wave propagation in magnetized, warm plasma. To demonstrate this effect, we give a numerical example of the developed theory for the typical parameters that may exist in stealth technology applications. It is well known that in cold plasma one of the two forward propagating modes is weakly attenuated while the other is weakly amplified. In comparison, in warm plasma, we observed that the weak damping of one mode in the cold plasma is absolutely enhanced by the thermal effect, while the second (which is weakly amplified in cold plasma) follows an anomalous behavior around resonant frequencies with enhanced attenuation and enhanced amplification regions. The present work considers these effects in warm plasma and shows enhanced absorption of the microwaves, due to the thermal effect, from plasma near a metallic wall.