Thermal ionization instability of an air discharge plasma in a microwave field

Results are presented from experimental studies of the initial stage of an air discharge initiated in a linearly polarized quasi-optical microwave beam. The discharge was excited at an air pressure at which the electron-neutral collision frequency in the discharge plasma was considerably higher than the circular frequency of the electromagnetic field and at a microwave field amplitude close to the threshold field for air breakdown. The experiments revealed relatively bright plasma channels stretched along the microwave electric field. The development rate of these channels and their characteristic transverse dimensions are estimated. A comparison of the experimental data and theoretical estimates indicates that the channels observed arise due to the onset of thermal ionization instability in the microwave discharge plasma.