Vorrichtung zur Anregung des Gases einer Gasentladungsstrecke mit Mikrowellenenergie

Device for the excitation of a gas in a gas discharge section (14) by means of microwave energy, comprising a microwave resonator (10 to 10''') connected to the gas discharge section (14) enveloping at least part of the section, and connected to a microwave feeder (11), providing local electrical inhomogeneous field strength distribution, which has at least one area (12) of maximum field strength and at least one area (13) having a field strength below a threshold value for the ignition of the gas discharge. In order to supply large amount of pulsed microwave power to the gas discharge section, the device is designed so that the gas discharge section (14) excited by a pulsed supply of microwave energy is completely arranged within an area located between the field strength maximum (area 13) and a threshold limit (13') for the ignition of the gas discharge.