A transmission line filled with fast switched periodic plasma as a wideband frequency transformer

Summary form only given. In this work a device aiming at optimizing the frequency shift process via periodic structure (introducing Floquet modes) and magnetic field (introducing additional plasma modes) and at having the geometry of the experimental setup resembling practical devices (i.e., simple and compact) is set up to study the time-domain wave phenomena. The experimental setup has a cylindrical coaxial line configuration, which has no cutoff frequency and is suitable for broadband applications. Ring-shaped permanent magnets are installed outside the outer cylinder in the periodic arrangement. The plasma is produced via rapid electrical discharges by periodic DC voltage pulses applied between the center conductor and the outer cylinder of the coax. A periodically structured plasma in a periodically distributed magnetic field is produced. As an x-band test wave is introduced into the line, the results show that the suddenly created periodically distributed plasma can effectively broaden the frequency spectrum of the test wave, which is partially converted into a frequency chirped periodic pulse.