GROUP VELOCITY MEASUREMENT FROM THE PROPAGATION OF THE IONIZATION FRONT IN A SURFACE-WAVE-PRODUCED PLASMA

During the first instant, previous to steady-state in a surface-wave-produced plasma, an ionization front advance front the launcher to the plasma column end. The velocity of the ionization front is much slower than the group velocity of the surface wave, this give a reflection of the incident signal on the moving ionization front. In this paper, we use this effect to calculate the surface wave group velocity.