Production of planar-type overdense plasma with resonant excitation of surface plasmon polaritons

Abstract

The present study presents a plasma source, capable of generating overdense plasma below the whole quartz plate while exciting surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) by means of a subwavelength diffraction grating. The wavelength of surface wave, calculated on either the discharge image or the simulated electric field distribution graph, is about 5.7 cm, which approximates the theoretical value by a calculation of the SPP dispersion equation in overdense plasma. The operation mechanism of plasma heating is attributed to the resonant excitation of SPPs and its dissipation in plasma.