Features of plasma glow in low pressure terahertz gas discharge

Abstract

Investigations of the low pressure (1–100 Torr) gas discharge in the powerful (1 kW) quasi-optical terahertz (0.55 THz) wave beams were made. An intense afterglow was observed after the end of gyrotron terahertz radiation pulse. Afterglow duration significantly exceeded radiation pulse length (8 μs). This phenomenon could be explained by the strong dependence of the collisional-radiative recombination rate (that is supposed to be the most likely mechanism of electron losses from the low pressure terahertz gas discharge) on electron temperature.