
71Genesis of a Wave Induced Discharge
Linear and Circularly Polarized Waves
In this section, we consider the analysis of linearly (LP) and circu-
larly (CP) polarized waves given by
tE
ky(,)cos
0
and
tE tz ky txky(,
in
cos(
0
at a wave frequency of 2.45 GHz.
The power P and electric eld E
0
for LP and CP waves are related by
c
LP
()12
00
/
and
c
CP
00
respectively, where
α
is the area of the
cross-section, and c is the velocity of the wave. From the average electron
energy gain per unit time for the wave polarizations (linear [LP] and circular
[CP]), it is possible to make predictions for the breakdown ti ...