Trends in glow discharge spectroscopy

It is the aim of this "perspective" to survey the current activities of the lively glow discharge community. These cover a wide range, from atmospheric pressure discharges, via the actual developments in the instrumentation for, and the use of, GD-OES and GD-MS, to pulsed discharges and to the basic principles, i.e., the characterization of the analytical discharges and the description of the fundamental processes occurring in them. The article is also intended to explain the background to the EU Specific Targetted Research Project (STREP) "EMPDA" and the EU Analytical Glow Discharge Research Training Network (RTN) "GLADNET" described in the editorial in this issue.