Surface-Wave Propagation in Homogeneous Plasmas

Abstract

The research on SWs in gas-discharge plasmas performed in the 1960s and 1970s was so intensive and successful that it established plasma waveguide systems as a new branch of research on waves in plasmas. After the first indications about conditions for the existence of EM SWs [3.1] and the pioneering work by Trivelpiece and Gould [3.2] on their behaviour, a lot of information was accumulated, especially on the properties and propagation characteristics of SWs in waveguides filled with homogeneous plasmas [3.3–75]. The wealth of results — both theoretical and experimental — led to, at the beginning of the 1980s, an opinion that the linear approach to wave propagation in homogeneous plasma waveguides was clearly understood and even that this area of activity had settled down. The definition and basic features of SWs entered textbooks on plasma physics [3.76,77]. Experimental and theoretical results on the properties of SWs were summarized in monographs [3.78,79] and review papers [3.80–82]. During the period up to the beginning of the 1980s, SWs were considered in terms of low-amplitude SW propagation in plasmas with given parameters. On this basis of thinking about plasma waveguides realized by DC discharges at comparatively low pressures, wave propagation under conditions of weak collisions, weak space-dispersion effects and weak electron drift was considered. During all these years, studies on SWs in plasma waveguide systems were strongly supported by very active research on EM surface modes in solid-state waveguide structures [3.83–85], which also provided a lot of experience and results.