Resonance-Sustained Radio Frequency Discharges

Abstract

The progress made in the last decade towards a better understanding of the resonance properties of bounded plasmas has shed some light on the physical behavior of the radio frequency plasmoid, which was discovered in 1929 but never satisfactorily explained. A few years ago it was shown that the plasmoid is a particular aspect of a much more general class of discharge such that the steady state is controlled by a resonance in the plasma. In this article the basic experiments, theory, and the recent investigations about radio frequency plasmoids and resonance-sustained gas discharges are reviewed.