Improvement of Electrode Design and Materials for Plasma Antenna Applications

Improving the performances of a gaseous plasma antenna, in terms of its proprieties, involves complex tradeoffs between plasma parameters. In this context, the efforts conducted in this study were twofold. On one side, a thorough research has been carried out in order to find possible ways to enhance the antenna's performance through the use of electrodes of different sizes. Being the main task to improve the electron density of a GPA with unvaried working conditions, preliminary studies and empirical analysis were performed on readily available commercial electrodes of equal geometry but different diameter, namely T7 and T10. Hereafter, a comparison has been conducted between the previous tests with the ones resulting by a new T10 electrode, characterized by a slightly different shape and the presence of a ceramic collar. Finally, after an attentive literature review, efforts have been made in the direction of suggesting promising materials and coatings to be implemented in future development. The current research will include data analysis obtained from testing some coatings as well. As concerns this aspect, the experimentation has followed two ways: the deposition via sol-gel method and the deposition by sputtering of pills wedged in the extremities of the electrodes.