The Effect of the Cyclotron Resonance on the Sensitivity of a Glow Discharge to Millimeter-Wave Radiation

The sensitivity of a miniature glow discharge tube to electromagnetic millimeter-wave radiation (70 GHz) was investigated in magnetic fields near the cyclotron resonance. A 100-fold increase in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was obtained at the cyclotron resonance. The SNR of the tube at cyclotron resonance was greater than ten times that of a commonly used crystal detector for millimeter-wave radiation (1N53D) measured under similar conditions.