Propagation of Brush-Shaped He/O2 Plasma Plumes in Ambient Air

• Published in: IEEE transactions on plasma science Vol. 43; no. 6; pp. 1993 - 1998
• Main Authors: Niu, Jinhai, Liu, Dongping, Ji, Longfei, Xia, Yang, Bi, Zhenhua, Song, Ying, Ma, Yuan, Huang, Yuan, Wang, Wenchao, Yang, Wenshu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.06.2015
• Subjects: Atmospheric plasma; Atmospheric-pressure plasmas; brush-shaped plasma; Current measurement; discharge propagation; Discharges (electric); Electrodes; glow discharge; intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD); Plasma devices; Plasma measurements; brush-shaped plasma; intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD); discharge propagation; Atmospheric plasma; glow discharge
• ISSN: 0093-3813; 1939-9375
• DOI: 10.1109/TPS.2015.2424072

In this paper, we report on the propagation behavior of the atmospheric-pressure and brush-shaped He/O 2 plasma plumes generated by a specially designed plasma device. The measurements show that the frequency of applied voltage (f) and the O 2 fraction and flow rate of the feed gas significantly affect the discharge propagation of the atmospheric-pressure plasma plume in ambient air. The uniformity of the brush-shaped plasma plume is greatly improved at a relatively high f or He/O 2 flow rate. Addition of a trace amount of O 2 into the He gas can also contribute to the formation of uniform and brush-shaped plasma plumes in ambient air. This paper confirms that the plasma device composed of well-aligned and micrometer-thick fibers can be utilized to generate large-scale plasma plumes for potential applications. The propagation of the He/O 2 plasma plume in ambient air results from the applied electric field across the small gas spacing of a barrier discharge electrode configuration, where the He atoms are easily ionized or excited for generating the brush-shaped plasma.