In an additional embodiment, the aforementioned augmented field zones at the tip 142 of the at least one conductive rod 140 will precipitate the formation of a cloud of ions that surround the tip 142. The cloud of ions will shield and protect the conductive rod 140 form the surrounding flow of plasma, thereby prevent the rod from melting under the influence of the plasma. The formation of the cloud of ions and the protection of the conductive rod 140 is demonstrated by the plots provided in FIG. 8. These plots show spectrums of the flow of plasma from the microwave plasma torch 100, where the torch 100 includes the aforementioned four tungsten rods, and the at least one plasma-forming gas is nitrogen. The plots in FIG. 8 show the spectrum of the flow of plasma at four different flow rates: 3.3, 16, 24, and 36 SLPM (standard liter per minute). At all four of these flow rates, the plot lines of FIG. 8 contain several bands belonging to working at least one plasma-forming gas (nitrogen) and contain no lines belonging to any of the component metals (tungsten) found within the conductive rod 140. The absence of any spectra associated with the component metals of the conductive rod demonstrates the protection of the conductive rod 140 from the influence of the flow of plasma within the torch chamber 120 via the cloud of ions.

As provided above, the electromagnetic field generated by the microwave generator includes the electric field component and the magnet field component. The magnetic field component and electric field component collectively act on the electrons within the at least one plasma-forming gas in generating the flow of plasma.