Hot plasma effects in gas discharge plasma

The subject of this paper is an abbreviated review of a recent study of rf discharges operating at low pressures where hot electron and nonlinear effects are essential. In this operational regime anomalous skin effect and collisionless electron heating may occur. From the direct measurement of electromagnetic fields and rf current density it was possible to infer the rf power absorption and to distinguish collisional and stochastic regimes of electromagnetic field interaction with bounded plasma. Some new features found in experiments with rf plasmas, associated with electron thermal motion and nonlinear effects induced by the rf Lorentz force, are discussed, together with corresponding theoretical results. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.