Influence of bias voltage and oxygen addition on the discharge aspects of a diffuse argon plume in an atmospheric pressure plasma jet

A remote plasma,also referred to as a plasma plume(diffuse or filamentary),is normally formed downstream of an atmospheric pressure plasma jet.In this study,a diffuse plume is formed by increasing the bias voltage(U_(b))applied to the downstream electrode of an argon plasma jet excited by a negatively pulsed voltage.The results indicate that the plume is filamentary when U_(b)is low,which transits to the diffuse plume with increasing U_(b).The discharge initiated at the rising edge of the pulsed voltage is attributed to the diffuse plume,while that at the falling edge contributes to the filament in the plume.For the diffuse plume,the discharge intensity decreases with the increasing oxygen content(C_o).Fast photography reveals that the diffuse plume results from a negative streamer,which has a dark region near the nozzle with C_o=0%.However,the dark region is absent with C_o=0.5%.From the optical emission spectrum,the electron density,electron excitation temperature,gas temperature,and oxygen atom concentration are investigated.

Characteristics of a large gap uniform discharge excited by DC voltage at atmospheric pressure

A large-gap uniform discharge is ignited by a coaxial dielectric barrier discharge and burns between a needle anode and a plate cathode under a low sustaining voltage by feeding with flowing argon. The basic aspects of the large-gap uniform discharge are investigated by optical and spectroscopic methods. From the discharge images, it can be found that this discharge has similar regions with glow discharge at low pressure except a plasma plume region. Light emission signals from the discharge indicate that the plasma column is invariant with time, while there are some stochastic pulses in the plasma plume region. The optical emission spectra scanning from 300 nm to 800 nm are used to calculate the excited electron temperature and vibrational temperature of the large-gap uniform discharge. It has been found that the excited electron temperature almost keeps constant and the vibrational temperature increases with increasing discharge current. Both of them decreases with increasing gas flow rate.

Electric and plasma characteristics of RF discharge plasma actuation under varying pressures

The electric and plasma characteristics of RF discharge plasma actuation under varying pressure have been inves- tigated experimentally. As the pressure increases, the shapes of charge-voltage Lissajous curves vary, and the discharge energy increases. The emission spectra show significant difference as the pressure varies. When the pressure is 1000 Pa, the electron temperature is estimated to be 4.139 eV, the electron density and the vibrational temperature of plasma are /peak /lPeak which describes the electron temper- 4.71 x 10^11 cm-3 and 1.27 eV, respectively. The ratio of spectral lines ＂391.4/＇380.5 ature hardly changes when the pressure varies between 5000-30000 Pa, while it increases remarkably with the pressure below 5000 Pa, indicating a transition from filamentary discharge to glow discharge. The characteristics of emission spec- trum are obviously influenced by the loading power. With more loading power, both of the illumination and emission spectrum intensity increase at 10000 Pa. The pin-pin electrode RF discharge is arc-like at power higher than 33 W, which results in a macroscopic air temperature increase.

Experimental investigation on the plasma morphology of ablative pulsed plasma thruster with tongue-shaped and flared electrodes

Ablative pulsed plasma thrusters(APPTs)are considered as an attractive propulsion option for station-keeping and drag makeup purposes for mass-and power-limited satellites.In order to understand the physical mechanism of APPTs,high-speed camera and optical emission spectroscopy are utilized to investigate the plasma characteristics including the spatial distribution and composition between the electrodes.The plume images and spectra at different times and positions are experimentally recorded,and the spatial distribution,composition,and trajectory of plasmas can be concluded through analyzing them.With the increase of the distance from the ablation surface,two clusters of plasmas near the anode and cathode meet downstream,and the species and density of plasmas tend to be uniform.

Polysilicon Prepared from SiCl_4 by Atmospheric-Pressure Non-Thermal Plasma

Non-thermal plasma at atmospheric pressure was explored for the preparation of polysilicon from SiCl4. The power supply sources of positive pulse and alternating current （8 kHz and 100 kHz） were compared for polysilicon preparation. The samples prepared by using the 100 kHz power source were crystalline silicon. The effects of H2 and SiCl4 volume fractions were investigated. The optical emission spectra showed that silicon species played an important role in polysilicon deposition

Excited Electron Temperature and Molecular Vibration Temperature During Transition from Filamentary Discharge to Glow Discharge in Surface Discharge in Air

A dielectric barrier surface discharge device was used to investigate the transition from a filamentary discharge to a glow discharge in air at different gas pressures. Discharge images and waveforms of the applied voltage and discharge current were recorded simultaneously, and it was found that the discharge could transit from filamentary to glow with the decrease in pressure. Optical emission spectra during the transition from a filamentary discharge to a glow one were recorded. Excited electron temperature can be determined from the ratios of the relative intensities of spectral lines while molecular vibration temperature can be measured by analysing spectral lines of the N2 second positive band system. The results show that both the excited temperature and molecular vibration temperature increase with the decrease in the gas pressure. Qualitative explanations are given.

Measurement of Temporally and Spatially Resolved Electron Density in the Filament of a Pulsed Spark Discharge in Water

The temporally and spatially resolved optical emission spectrum of Hα of a pulsed spark discharge in water was experimentally measured. The temporally and spatially resolved electron densities, along the radial direction of the spark filament, for a pulsed spark discharge in water with a conductivity of 100 μS/cm were investigated. The electron density in the spark filament was found to be in the 10^（18）/cm^3 order of magnitude. The highest electron density was measured at the primary stage of the spark filament, and it decreased with time. The radial distribution of electron density increased from the center to the edge of the spark filament.

Simulations and Measurement of Electron Energy and Effective Electron Temperature of Nanosecond Pulsed Argon Plasma

The behavior of argon plasma driven by nanosecond pulsed plasma in a low-pressure plasma reactor is investigated using a global model, and the results are compared with the experimental measurements. The time evolution of plasma density and the electron energy probability function are calculated by solving the energy balance and Boltzmann equations. During and shortly after the discharge pulse, the electron energy probability function can be represented by a bi-Maxwellian distribution, indicating two energy groups of electrons. According to the effective electron temperature calculation, we find that there are more high-energy electrons that play an important role in the excitation and ionization processes than low-energy electrons. The effective electron temperature is also measured via optical emission spectroscopy to evaluate the simulation model. In the comparison, the simulation results are found to be in agreement with the measure- ments. Furthermore, variations of the effective electron temperature are presented versus other discharge parameters, such as pulse width time, pulse rise time and gas pressure.