Collisionless electron heating in microwave discharges

The problems of collisionless electron heating in microwave discharges are treated under conditions when the electron mean free path is larger than the characteristic space scale of the electric field. In this connection the problem of the so called "collisionless energy dissipation" is discussed. The quasilinear method of kinetic description of a weakly ionized plasma is presented giving the possiblity to take into account collisionless electron heating effects. The cases of inductively and capacitively coupled plasmas are considered. The quasilinear theory of plasma heating is generalized to the case of spatially nonuniform plasmas.