The Input Admittance of a Rectangular Waveguide-Fed Aperture Under an Inhomogeneous Plasma: Theory and Experiment

The admittance of a waveguide-fed rectangular aperture under an inhomogeneous plasma is derived and experimentally verified. For both flowing and stationary inhomogeneoas plasmas, the agreement is at least as accurate as presently available plasma diagnostic techniques will allow. It is shown that there is a clear separation of the dependence of aperture-admittance properties upon plasma properties, such as electron density, profile shape and collision frequency, over two to three decades of peak electron density, change. The collision frequency primarily affects the aperture conductance, particularly for critical and overdense plasmas. The profile shape, i.e., a boundary layer, primarily affects the aperture susceptance.