Stationary striations in plasma, created by a short microwave pulse in a waveguide filled with a neutral gas

Abstract

It was observed experimentally that after crossing a waveguide filled with a neutral gas, a short powerful microwave pulse leaves a periodic glow of plasma along the waveguide, persisting several tens of nanoseconds. A theoretical model is presented which in combination with numerical simulations proposes a possible explanation of this phenomenon.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure