Introduction to the Special Issue on the APSPT 2013

The Asia-Pacific International Symposium on the Basics and Applications of Plasma Technology (APSPT) has been held in Taiwan every two to four years since 1997. It is an important annual event in the Asia-Pacific area, providing an excellent platform for exchanging new ideas and sharing the most advanced knowledge in plasma-related science and technology. Thanks to the participants from 10 countries, in the 8th APSPT, we had a very strong program with 187 papers delivered at National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, in December 20–22, 2013. This special issue documents the selected presentations in all kinds of plasma science and technology. There were 51 papers submitted after the conference and 32 accepted to be published in this special issue. We also thank the authors, the reviewers, the editors, and the publisher, who have seamlessly worked together to publish this special issue in time. I hope it will help advance our knowledge in plasma science and technology and cultivate future scientific collaboration among those who participated in APSPT 2013. I look forward to seeing all participants again in the 9th APSPT at Nagasaki University, Japan, in December 2015.