Attenuation and propagation of a scattered electromagnetic wave in two-dimensional atmospheric pressure plasma

Finite-difference-time-domain arithmetic is applied to simulate the propagation of an electromagnetic (EM) wave in a two-dimensional atmospheric pressure plasma (APP) and a metal layer with strong electron-neutral collisions. The dependences of the EM wave attenuation on the parameters of the APP are provided. The two-dimensional numerical results indicate that when the profile of the electron density is given, the attenuation of an EM wave in APP is strongly affected by (a) the polarization mode (TM mode or TE mode), (b) the incident angle of the EM wave, (c) the EM wave frequency, (d) the width of the plasma layer, and (e) the collision frequency between electrons and neutrals. In this paper, the behaviour of the propagation of an EM wave inside the plasma layer is explained by the principle of wave interference. The relationship between the attenuation property and the above-mentioned parameters is also studied.