title: Generation and confinement of microwave gas-plasma in photonic dielectric microstructure.
abstract: We report on a self-guided microwave surface-wave induced generation of ~60 μm diameter and 6 cm-long column of argon-plasma confined in the core of a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. At gas pressure of 1 mbar, the micro-confined plasma exhibits a stable transverse profile with a maximum gas-temperature as high as 1300 ± 200 K, and a wall-temperature as low as 500 K, and an electron density level of 10¹⁴ cm⁻³. The fiber guided fluorescence emission presents strong Ar⁺ spectral lines in the visible and near UV. Theory shows that the observed combination of relatively low wall-temperature and high ionisation rate in this strongly confined configuration is due to an unprecedentedly wide electrostatic space-charge field and the subsequent ion acceleration dominance in the plasma-to-gas power transfer.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Debord
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jamier
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gérôme
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Leroy
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boisse-Laporte
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Leprince
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Benabid