Measurements of microwave transmission through a decaying plasma column

We have studied the width and the amplitude of the transmitted radio frequency (RF) pulse, as a function of the afterglow time for argon and nitrogen plasmas. In our study, the neutral gas pressure for the case of argon was 2 torr and that for nitrogen was 0.5 torr. The RF energy of the transmitted pulse was found to reach half of its maximum value for afterglow times of about 0.1 s for argon and about 375 /spl mu/s for nitrogen.<
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