Self-organized filaments, striations and other nonuniformities in nonthermal atmospheric microwave excited microdischarges

Self-organized filaments, stationary striations, and spherical nonuniformities have been observed in atmospheric argon microdischarges sustained within a 120-mu m gap between two coplanar electrodes. The microdischarges are driven by opposite ends of a half-wave split-ring resonator constructed using microstrip transmission lines. The microdischarge generator operates at 900 MHz using 0.5-2 W of power.