From: "St-Onge, Louis" <louis.st-onge@nrc.ca>
Newsgroups: sci.physics.electromag,sci.physics.plasma
Subject: Re: #1. Possible EW apps for Plasma Mirrors ???
Organization: CNRC/IMI


aufsj@IMAP2.ASU.EDU wrote:
>
> `
> : [.....] description of "plasma mirror" deleted.
>
> : > Well, what part of the big picture am I missing? It seems that
> : > at least some doppler spoofing should be attainable, yet I haven't heard
> : > of it being done. I'm certain I'll hear why soon..... :-)
>
> : Energy to run it for one thing. A plasma is ionized gas, it takes an
> : eV (electron Volt) or so to ionize most atoms, and when you want to keep
> : things ionized it adds up to lots of electrons and lots of volts: volts
> : times current is power. So you need a big power plant. Putting this on
> : a missle ain't gonna happen.
>
> Hmmmm. The numbers don't seem that wild to me.

I would tend to agree with that latter statement. From my experience
with low-pressure (microwave-produced) plasmas, a few hundred watts
would be sufficient to produce a plasma (let's say argon plasma) with
electron density of around 10^10 cm^-3, which would then be able to
reflect waves with frequencies up to the GHz.

L. S.