Nonlinear Effects of Electromagnetic Pulse on a Plasma-Based Electrically Small VHF Antenna

Demonstration of the electromagnetic hardening properties of a plasma-based electrically small VHF antenna is presented in this paper. It is shown that when illuminated by an electromagnetic pulse, the maximum voltage collected by the antenna grows linearly with the maximum magnitude of the incident electric field, but beyond a certain threshold around 70 kV/m, the maximum voltage collected ceases to grow linearly and seems to saturate around a value of 200 V.