Ferrite Based Antennas for Lanching Shear Alfven and Whistler Waves*

Space missions place a premium on efficient low frequency wave antennas. This is especially true for Radiation Belt Remediation (RBR) intended to precipitate “MeV” satellite “killer” electrons injected following High Altitude Nuclear Detonation. Observations supported by analysis place premium on high amplitude whistlers. We have previously suggested¹ that inserting a core containing Co-Fe nanoparticles in conventional antennas can increase the radiation resistance by more than 50dB, with negligible hysteresis loss.  We conducted proof-of-principle experiments using less efficient ferrite material. Antenna for launching shear Alfvén and whistler waves were tested on the Large Plasma device at UCLA.  A shear wave antenna µ=80 launched a wave f/f_ci = 0.65 with 80 times the amplitude that an identical antenna without a core.  Two or more ferrite based antennas have launched shear waves with k_perp/k_para = 98. Whistler waves were launched and detected meters away.  Different configurations and phasing of the antennas will be presented

1:Papadopoulos et al. COSPAR 2018, Paper C5.1-0017-18