Spectroscopic characterization of a neon surface-wave sustained (2.45 GHz) discharge at atmospheric pressure

In this paper a spectroscopic study of a microwave (2.45 GHz) neon surface-wave sustained discharge (SWD) at atmospheric pressure in a quartz tube has been carried out in order to determine the plasma characteristic parameters (e.g. electron temperature and density, gas temperature, absorbed power per electron) and also to identify possible deviations from the thermodynamic equilibrium for this kind of microwave discharge. The results have been compared to experiments in the literature for other noble gas (helium and argon) SWDs generated under similar experimental conditions. Intermediate values between those of argon and helium plasmas were obtained for characteristic neon plasma parameters (temperatures and electron density). An important departure from the Saha equilibrium was exhibited by neon SWDs.