A method for the stabilisation of a glow discharge from a plasma, preferably at or above atmospheric pressure, comprises: generating an electric field within a plasma cell using an alternating excitation voltage to excite particles and produce a glow discharge plasma therein; monitoring, in each excitation cycle of the alternating voltage, one or more signals that correlate with glow discharge optical emissions from the plasma, such as the plasma current; and controlling the operating conditions for the plasma cell in a resonant condition to maintain the glow discharge optical emissions from the plasma within a desired operating range in each excitation cycle of the alternating voltage. A relatively stable glow discharge is thereby maintained via dynamic feedback control of operating conditions such as the electric field used to excite particles within the plasma cell. The stabilisation of the glow plasma can be used in glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GD-OES) for gas analysis and in other applications.
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