I don’t think the paper is claiming to be breaking new ground in microwave plasma. Seems like the point is more to nail things down to enable people to do cool plasma research without expensive kit

From the abstract: > These simple techniques of plasma generation and subsequent surface treatment and modification applications may bring new opportunities leading to new innovations not only in advanced labs, but also in undergraduate and even high school research labs.

One of my coworkers used a setup like this last year to do some cool plasma oxidation studies in his garage with his middle school aged son

I guess where I'm confused is that the process has already been well documented. Far more than actually needs to be, because a basic description[0][1] is something the average hacker/maker/whateverwearecallingitthesedays could build one in an afternoon. There's hundreds of youtube videos and this has been featured in Make and plenty of maker magazines for decades.

[0] Place a glass container in the microwave, pull a vacuum inside the container, press start

[1] For added reliability purge with argon and inject slight amounts of oxygen. I mean slight

It’s much easier than faffing around with vacuums. Take the metal foot and case off a tea light. Light the tea light, place on suitable saucer in microwave. Nuke. Plasma. Useless plasma, but plasma nonetheless.

It's even easier than that, if you can get your hands on carbon fiber. Microwaving any piece of carbon fiber will immediately give you very unstable and very useless plasma.

Narrator: What they didn't know, was they were about to solve a mystery that would save mankind.

Probably not.

The use of plasma in industrial processing has enabled a lot of computer technology. It’s been well studied for nearly 100 years.

I work at a machine that makes plasma from a giant microwave (though we call them gyrotrons instead of magnetrons when they pull 50 kW).

Yes, but now you can make plasma and microwave popcorn simultaneously with just one device!

Can you use this to send D-Mails

Only a Mad Scientist would attempt that

el psy

kongroo