An Improved Z-Transform Finite Difference Time Domain Method for Electromagnetic Scattering and Plasma Stealth

Abstract

The plasma sheath can absorb or reflect electromagnetic waves, thus affecting the communication of hypersonic vehicles. The study of attenuation and enhancement of electromagnetic scattering by plasma is of great significance. We propose a novel Z-transform finite-difference time-domain (ZT-FDTD) method to study the interaction between electromagnetic waves and plasmas. The numerical results show that this method has high accuracy and improves the computational efficiency by 9.8 percent, compared to the traditional ZT-FDTD method. We investigated the enhancement and attenuation of electromagnetic scattering by plasma at different plasma frequencies and plasma collision frequencies. The variation in the electric field amplitude in the plasma was studied under different electromagnetic scattering conditions. Through the hybrid plasma model, the changes in electromagnetic scattering and in the electric field amplitude under plasma stealth were further investigated. The position of the maximum electric field amplitude and the variation in the zero-value region of the electric field amplitude correspond to the different effects of plasma on electromagnetic scattering. The research methods and ideas in this study have important reference values and provide a new perspective for studying plasma stealth technology and solving the “blackout” problem.

Keywords

• Electromagnetic scattering
• finite-difference time-domain (FDTD)
• plasma stealth
• Z-transform