In this work we discuss some physical aspects of surface wave driven discharges operating in pure nitrogen N2 and in N2—Ar mixtures, as sources of active species. The developed theoretical models are based on a self-consistent treatment of particle kinetics, wave electrodynamics, gas thermal balance and plasma-wall interactions. By means of optical emission and absorption spectroscopy the population density of the species of interest has been detected. Important problems concerning inhomogeneous wave—to—plasma power transfer, mechanisms of N2 dissociation, creation of ions and metastable particles are discussed in the terms ofthe obtained theoretical and experimental results.
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