Plasma limiter based on surface wave plasma excited by microwave

A novel plasma limiter, in which the plasma is excited by surface wave, is presented. The breakdown time of some gases filled in the limiter were calculated as a function of gas pressure, ionization degree and density of seed electrons under low pressure (0.01 ∼1 Torr) and high pressure (10 ∼1000 Torr) cases. The results show that the limiter filled with Xe with a pressure of 0.9 Torr, seed electron density of 1016 m-3, and ionization degree of 10-4, has a breakdown time of approximate 19.6 ns.