One of the most important effects of ionospheric modification by high power, high frequency (HF) waves is the generation of ultra low frequency/extremely low frequency/very low frequency (ULF/ELF/VLF) waves by modulated heating. This paper reviews the scientific achievements of the past five decades regarding the main mechanisms of excitation of ULF/ELF/VLF waves and discusses their characteristics, such as their electrojet dependency, the location of the source region, continuous and discontinuous waves, the number of HF arrays, and the suitable range of the modulation frequency for different proposed mechanisms. Finally, the outlook for future research in this area is presented.