SUPERCOOLED AND SUPERCONDUCTING SMALL-LOOP AND DIPOLE ANTENNAS

To assess the performance of electrically small antennas, the two most fundamental antennas, namely electric and magnetic dipoles, have been chosen for examination of their performance in a superconducting environment. Aspects of the two antennas and their matching networks that are discussed include efficiency, Q, input impedance, power gain, power handling and signal/noise ratio. Both transmitting and receiving performances are considered. Finally, experimental results for loop and dipole antennas constructed out of YBCO wire are presented and compared with their supercooled copper counterparts. In this, they show a significant improvement in efficiency.