Phased plasma gun
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The Phased Plasma Gun (or PPG) is a fictional weapon from the television series Babylon 5. It fires a small charge of superheated gas. This gas retains both its shape and small volume via a residual magnetic field. Upon impact with an object, the magnetic field is dissipated and the heat discharged. PPG bolts cause significant visible distortion as they travel through air.
The PPG is composed only of highly heat-resistant alloys, due to the rapid and extreme heating and cooling that it must endure during regular use. One of these alloys is morbidium, a metal that is harder than diamond. The electromagnetic firing coil is composed of morbidium, and has the gun's serial number printed on it, so that PPGs are just as traceable as modern guns.
Because it does not cause damage by force of impact, it is a standard-issue military sidearm for space-based personnel, even though PPGs are more expensive to produce. The reasoning behind this is that a stray bullet may puncture the hull, causing unintended decompression. However, a PPG shot may burn through some materials. In several episodes, PPG shots were fired through the thin walls of air ducts to attack people inside.
In earlier episodes, where few shots were fired, plasma bursts were carefully generated, and penetrated the target, but when massive battles were staged, a shift into a lower quality CGI followed, so that the burst didn't penetrate, but faded off.
[edit] Similar weapons in other fiction
In the film The Terminator, the character played by Arnold Schwarzenegger goes to a gun shop in present-day LA and requests a "...phased plasma rifle in [a] 40 watt range," a weapon from his own time.
