An experiment was performed to determine the temperature distribution within a stationary plasma in atmospheric air produced by a continuously operating CO2 laser. A peak temperature of 17000 °K (±5%) was found to exist at a point 1.1 cm ahead of the focal point. The radiation surrounding the hot plasma core was found to consist primarily of the first negative system of nitrogen.

A closed-form solution is given for the electromagnetic field in a cylindrical electrodeless discharge of infinite length in which the conductivity of the plasma is assumed to be complex and have a parabolic variation with plasma radius. The low-pressure ambipolar diffusion-controlled electrodeless discharge is closely approximated by this model. Solutions are presented for various values of the ratio of collision frequency to applied frequency and for various values of plasma conductivity. The variation in magnitude of the fields within the plasma is qualitatively similar to the well-known solutions based on Thomson's model, but the phase shift is considerably reduced.