A new technique for cw production of high-pressure, high-density, non-equilibrium plasma is presented. Using microwave excitation at 2.45 GHz, a stable atmospheric glow discharge was sustained between two knife-edge electrodes, having a length of 10 mm and facing each other across a ∼100 µm microgap. Laser Thomson scattering diagnostics indicates that the plasma density in the microgap is as high as 1.6×1015 cm-3 at a microwave power of 100 W. The optical emission of the N2 second positive band indicates that the gas temperature in the microgap is 1800 K, much lower than the electron temperature.
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