Theory and modeling of self-organization and propagation of filamentary plasma arrays in microwave breakdown at atmospheric pressure.

High power microwave breakdown at atmospheric pressure leads to the formation of filamentary plasma arrays that propagate toward the source. A two-dimensional model coupling Maxwell equations with plasma fluid equations is used to describe the formation of patterns under conditions similar to recent experiments and for a wave electric field perpendicular to the simulation domain or in the simulation domain. The calculated patterns are in excellent qualitative agreement with the experiments, with good quantitative agreement of the propagation speed of the filaments. The propagation of the plasma filaments is due to the combination of diffusion and ionization. Emphasis is put on the fact that free electron diffusion (and not ambipolar diffusion) associated with ionization is responsible for the propagation of the front.