Construction of self-dual normal bases and their complexity

Recent work of Pickett has given a construction of self-dual normal bases for extensions of finite fields, whenever they exist. In this article we present these results in an explicit and constructive manner and apply them, through computer search, to identify the lowest complexity of self-dual normal bases for extensions of low degree. Comparisons to similar searches amongst normal bases show that the lowest complexity is often achieved from a self-dual normal basis.