Theoretical and Experimental Studies of Terahertz Wave Propagation in Unmagnetized Plasma

The spacecraft will experience the well-known “blackout” problem when it re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, which results in communication failures between the spacecraft and the ground control center. It is important to study the properties of terahertz (THz) wave propagation in plasma for communications using THz wave is an alternative method for solving the blackout problem. The properties of THz wave propagation in plasma have been studied with the ZT-FDTD (Z-Transform Finite Difference Time Domain) method and experimental method in this paper. The dependence of plasma density, plasma collision frequency, thickness of plasma and THz wave frequency on the THz wave propagation are presented. The properties of 0.22THz electromagnetic wave propagation in plasma have been studied experimentally with shock tube, and the experimental results are in good agreement with the FDTD ones. Both the FDTD and experimental results indicate that communications using THz wave is an alternative and effective way to solve the blackout problem.