Radiation Patterns of the Noise Emission from a Gaseous Discharge
- Creators
- George, Nick
Abstract
Theoretical and experimental radiation patterns are given in spectral form for the thermal radiation from a cylindrical discharge column which is adjacent to a long thin slot in a metallic plane. A spatial distribution is predicted which exhibits interference minima and maxima when the length of the slot and the wavelength of the emission are the same order of magnitude. The analysis is based on Maxwell's equations and the Leontovich-Rytov distributed-source generalization of Nyquist's noise formula. Fraunhofer pattern measurements are presented in which an argon source is used to excite slots of 7.3π and 9.5π radians in length. Data are also presented to show the effects of variations in the pressure and the d-c current of the discharge. The pattern measuring apparatus is a Dicke radiometer having the following characteristics: frequency 9200 mc/s, bandwidth to the detector 16 mc/s, modulation frequency 1000 c/s, and residual noise level 0.3 rms°K. An interference phenomenon is predicted by the theory and demonstrated by an experiment, even though the source excitation is spatially distributed and essentially uncorrelated in time and in space. The patterns are not even approximately Lambertian, e.g., a thin slot of 9.5π radians exhibits a pattern having nine relative maxima in 180° with the maximum emission at 63° from the normal.
Additional Information
This research was supported by the U. S. Air Force through the Air Force Office of Scientific Research of the Air Research and Development Command, under Contract No. AF18(600)-1113. The author wishes to acknowledge the many helpful discussions with C. H. Papas throughout the course of this work. Valuable consultation was also given by G. J. Stanley on radiometer principles and practices during the design of the equipment for the experiments. The author wishes to express his appreciation to G. F. Smith who encouraged this work. This research was supported in part by a fellowship grant from the Hughes Aircraft Company.Attached Files
Submitted - TR000403.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 100195
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20191204-174344884
- AF18(600)-1113
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
- Hughes Aircraft Company
- Created
-
2019-12-06Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2020-09-22Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Caltech Antenna Laboratory
- Series Name
- Caltech Antenna Laboratory Technical Report
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 22
- Other Numbering System Name
- AFOSR
- Other Numbering System Identifier
- TN-59-1101