Surface wave propagation characteristics in atmospheric pressure plasma column

In the typical experiments of surface wave sustained plasma columns at atmospheric pressure the ratio of collision to wave frequency (ν/ω) is much greater than unity. Therefore, one might expect that the usual analysis of the wave dispersion relation, performed under the assumption ν/ω = 0, cannot give adequate description of the wave propagation characteristics. In order to study these characteristics we have analyzed the wave dispersion relationship for arbitrary ν/ω. Our analysis includes phase and wave dispersion curves, attenuation coefficient, and wave phase and group velocities. The numerical results show that a turning back point appears in the phase diagram, after which a region of backward wave propagation exists. The experimentally observed plasma column is only in a region where wave propagation coefficient is higher than the attenuation coefficient. At the plasma column end the electron density is much higher than that corresponding to the turning back point and the resonance.