A cold plasma plume with a highly conductive liquid electrode

A cold dielectric barrier discharge （DBD） plasma plume with one highly conductive liquid electrode has been developed to treat thermally sensitive materials, and its preliminary discharging characteristics have been studied. The averaged electron temperature and density is estimated to be 0.6eV and 1011/cm3, respectively. The length of plasma plume can reach 5cm with helium gas （He）, and the conductivity of the outer electrode affects the plume length obviously. This plasma plume could be touched by bare hand without causing any burning or painful sensation, which may provide potential application for safe aseptic skin care. Moreover, the oxidative particles （e.g., OH, O＊, 03） in the downstream oxygen （02） gas of the plume have been applied to treat the landfill leachate. The results show that the activated 02 gas can degrade the landfill leachate effectively, and the chemical oxygen demand （COD）, conductivity, biochemical oxygen demand （BOD）, and suspended solid （SS） can be decreased by 52%, 57%, 76% and 92%, respectively.

Micro-impulse and plasma plume produced by irradiating aluminum target with nanosecond laser pulses in double-pulse scheme

The micro-impulse generated by ablating an aluminum target in double-pulse laser bursts with different interpulse delays was investigated using a torsion pendulum.The plasma plume was simultaneously visualized using high-speed photography to analyze the coupling mechanism of the ablation impulse.The experiment was carried out using a pulsed laser with a pulse width of 8 ns and a wavelength of 1064 nm.The experimental results show that an impulse with an interpulse delay of 60 ns is roughly 60%higher than that with no delay between the two pulses,when the energy of both laser pulses is 50 m J.Therefore,double-pulse schemes could enhance the ablation impulse under certain conditions.This is because the ablation of the first laser pulse changes the optical properties of the aluminum target surface,increasing the absorptivity.However,the ablation impulse is reduced with a time delay of 20 ns when the energy of both laser pulses is100 mJ or 150 mJ.It can be concluded that the plasma produced by ablating the aluminum with the first pulse shields the second laser pulse.To summarize,the experimental results show that different delay times in a double-pulse scheme have a significant effect on the ablation impulse.The study provides a reference for the optimization of the parameters when laser ablation propulsion with a double-pulse scheme is applied in the fields of space debris removal,laser ablation thrusters,and so on.

Electrical Characteristics of Plasma Plume During Pulse Wave Laser Welding

To detect the real-time plasma plume during pulse wave Nd:YAG laser welding, experimental studies were conducted based on asynchronous signal acquisition system. The electrical signals of the laser-induced plasma plume were obtained by a passive acquisition system. The plume was directly observed and recorded using synchronous high-speed camera. The results showed that the waveform of the signals was in accordance with the periodical laser power. The signals decreased after the laser was turned on and fl uctuated relatively steadily on the stable stage and then increased to 0 V after the laser beam was turned off . The decreasing time of the electrical signals was roughly 1.0 ms, and it decreased with the increasing peak power. However, the average power had insignifi cant eff ect on the signal decreasing time.

Pulsed microwave-driven argon plasma jet with distinctive plume patterns resonantly excited by surface plasmon polaritons

Atmospheric lower-power pulsed microwave argon cold plasma jets are obtained by using coaxial transmission line resonators in ambient air.The plasma jet plumes are generated at the end of a metal wire placed in the middle of the dielectric tubes.The electromagnetic model analyses and simulation results suggest that the discharges are excited resonantly by the enhanced electric field of surface plasmon polaritons.Moreover,for conquering the defect of atmospheric argon filamentation discharges excited by 2.45-GHz of continued microwave,the distinctive patterns of the plasma jet plumes can be maintained by applying different gas flow rates of argon gas,frequencies of pulsed modulator,duty cycles of pulsed microwave,peak values of input microwave power,and even by using different materials of dielectric tubes.In addition,the emission spectrum,the plume temperature,and other plasma parameters are measured,which shows that the proposed pulsed microwave plasma jets can be adjusted for plasma biomedical applications.

The Effect of an External Magnetic Field on the Plume Expansion Dynamics of Laser-Induced Aluminum Plasma

In this work, we investigated the plasma morphology induced by a Nd：YAG laser with the aim of improving the understanding of the formation and dynamics of the plasma in two cases, with and without a magnetic field. Single laser pulse production of a plasma in the absence and presence of a magnetic field was performed with an aluminum target in air. A fast photography technique was employed to obtain information about the expansion dynamics and confinement of the aluminum plasma in each case. The generation of the laser plasma was allowed to expand at two locations with different magnetic field strengths, which correspond to the strength 0.58 T in the center of two magnetic poles and 0.83 T at a distance of 4 mm from the upper pole （N）. The plume showed lateral confinement at longer delays when the target was placed at the center of the two poles. When the target was placed at a distance of 4 mm from the upper pole it was observed that the plume was divided into two lobes at the initial stage and traveled towards the center of the magnetic field with further elapse of time.

Study of Plume Characteristics of a Stationary Plasma Thruster

Electron density and temperature of the plume are measured by a double Langmuir probe in an experimental chamber. A numerical model based on both particle-in-cell scheme and direct simulation Monte Carlo hybrid method is developed to simulate the flow field of plume. The equation for plasma potential is solved by alternative direction implicit technique. The simulation is verified by comparing the computational results with the measured data. The study indicates that the electron temperature of flow field is about 2 eV and the electron density is about 2.5 ×10^16 - 5×10^15 m^-3 at the central line with a distance of 0.3 - 1.0 m downstream of the thruster exit. The model can well predict the flow field parameters of the steady plume. The efforts of this paper are referable for further investigation.

辅助放电下刷状空气等离子体羽的放电特性和参数诊断

大气压等离子体射流(APPJ)能产生富含活性粒子的等离子体羽,在众多领域具有广泛的应用前景.从应用角度考虑,如何产生大尺度弥散等离子体羽是APPJ研究的热点之一.目前,利用惰性气体APPJ已经能产生令人满意的大尺度等离子体羽,但从经济性上考虑,如何产生大尺度空气等离子体羽更具有应用价值.针对于此,本工作设计了一个具有辅助放电的APPJ,产生了大尺度刷形空气等离子体羽.结果表明,刷状空气等离子体羽可以在一定电压峰值(Vp)内产生,并且随着Vp增大等离子体羽的长度和发光强度都增大.电压和发光信号波形表明,每半个电压周期最多会有一次放电.每半个电压周期的放电概率和光脉冲的强度都随着Vp增大而增大,但放电起始时刻的电压值会随着Vp增大而降低.高速影像研究表明弥散刷形空气等离子体羽和小尺度空气等离子体羽的产生机制类似,均源于分叉正流光的时间叠加.此外,采集了刷形空气等离子体羽的发射光谱,并利用其对放电的电子温度、电子密度、分子振动温度和气体温度进行了研究.结果表明,等离子体羽的气体温度较低,且基本不随Vp变化.然而电子密度、电子温度和分子振动温度均随着Vp增大而升高.利用激光诱导荧光光谱技术研究了等离子体羽的OH浓度,发现OH分布较为均匀,且其浓度随着Vp增大而增大.最后,对这些变化规律进行定性分析.

Spatial and Excitation Variations for Different Applied Voltages in an Atmospheric Neon Plasma Jet

A neon plasma jet was generated in air, driven by a 9 kHz sinusoidal power supply. The characteristics of the plasma plume and the optical spectra with plasma propagation for different applied voltages were investigated. By increasing the applied voltage, the plasma plume first increases and then retracts to become short and bulky. The shortened effect of Ne plasma plume （about 10 mm） for the further voltage increasing is more apparent than that of He （about 3 mm） and Ar （about 1 mm）. Emission intensity of the N2 （337 am） increases with the applied voltage, gradually substituting the emission intensity of Ne （702 nm and 585 am） as the noticeable radiation. At the nozzle opening, the Ne （702 am） emission dominates, while the Ne （585 nm） emission is most noticeable around the tip of the plasma plume. The spatial distribution of the three spectral lines indicates that Ne （702 nm） emission decreases dramatically with plasma propagation while Ne （585 am） and N2 （337 nm） emissions reach their maxima at the middle of the plasma plume. The results indicate that the Ne （702 nm） emission is much more sensitive to the average electron temperature and the density of the high-energy electrons, so it changes greatly at the tube nozzle and little at the tip region as the voltage increases. The population of high-energy electrons, the average electron temperature, the collision with air molecules and the Penning effect between Ne metastables and air molecules may explain their different variations with plasma propagating and voltage increasing.

Influence of sample temperature on the expansion dynamics of laser-induced germanium plasma

In this paper, we investigated the influence of sample temperature on the expansion dynamics and the optical emission spectroscopy of laser-induced plasma, and Ge was selected as the test sample. The target was heated from room temperature（22 °C） to 300 °C, and excited in atmospheric environment by using a Q-Switched Nd：YAG pulse laser with the wavelength of 1064 nm. To study the plasma expansion dynamics, we observed the plasma plume at different laser energies（5.0, 7.4 and 9.4 mJ）and different sample temperatures by using time-resolved image. We found that the heated target temperature could accelerate the expansion of plasma plume. Moreover, we also measured the effect of target temperature on the optical emission spectroscopy and signal-to-noise ratio.

飞秒脉冲激光冲击强化中等离子体压力时空演化规律

为研究飞秒脉冲激光冲击强化中等离子体压力时空演化规律,利用考虑电子态密度(DOS)效应的模型计算了电子热容和电声耦合系数随电子温度的演化规律,并与采用QEOS(quotidian equation of state)模型计算结果进行了对比;提出DOS飞秒脉冲激光冲击强化模型,计算得到电子温度、晶格温度、等离子体羽位置时间演化规律和等离子体压力时空演化规律,并与QEOS飞秒脉冲激光冲击强化模型结果进行了对比。结果表明:DOS飞秒脉冲激光冲击强化模型计算得到的等离子体羽位置随时间的演化规律与实验结果吻合程度更好;增加激光能量或功率密度、考虑电子DOS效应会增加电子、晶格温度和等离子体压力。

A 30 mm Wide DC-Driven Brush-Shaped Cold Air Plasma Without Airflow Supplement

This paper reports a cold atmospheric pressure DC-driven air plasma brush. Three stainless steel needles are symmetrically mounted on a slot shaped PVC slab to act as the elec- trodes. The brush driven by a direct current （DC） power supply can generate an air plasma glow up to 30 mm wide with no inert gas addition and no air flow supplement. The plasma glow appears uniform no matter what kinds of material are processed. The measured current and the simulated current all show that each pulsed discharge including two peaks always oc- curs for different gaps between electrodes. Emission spectra measurement result shows that the obtained rotational temperatures are 300 K and the vibrational temperatures are 2250 K. Some reactive species are presented in the plasma glow, which suggest that the proposed plasma brush is beneficial to practical applications.

Effect of Cumulative Nanosecond Laser Pulses on the Plasma Emission Intensity and Surface Morphology of Pt-and Ag-Ion Deposited Silicon

In this work, the laser induced plasma plume characteristics and surface morphology of Pt- and Ag-ion deposited silicon were studied. The deposited silicon was exposed to cumulative laser pulses. The plasma plume images produced by each laser shot were captured through a computer controlled image capturing system and analyzed with image-J software. The integrated optical emission intensity of both samples showed an increasing trend with increasing pulses. Agion deposited silicon showed higher optical emission intensity as compared to Pt-ion deposited silicon, suggesting that more damage occurred to the silicon by Ag ions, which was confirmed by SRIM/TRIM simulations. The surface morphologies of both samples were examined by optical microscope showing thermal, exfoliational and hydrodynamical sputtering processes along with the re-deposition of the material, debris and heat affected zones＇ formation. The crater of Ption deposited silicon was deeper but had less lateral damage than Agion deposited silicon. The novel results clearly indicated that the ion deposited silicon surface produced incubation centers, which led to more absorption of incident light resulting into a higher emission intensity from the plasma plume and deeper crater formation as compared to pure silicon. The approach can be effectively utilized in the laser induced breakdown spectroscopy technique, which endures poor limits of detection.

The ablation characteristics of laser-assisted pulsed plasma thruster with metal propellant

In this study,a laser-assisted pulsed plasma thruster(LA-PPT)with a novel configuration is proposed as an electric propulsion thruster which separates laser ablation and electromagnetic acceleration.Owing to the unique structure of the thruster,metals can also be used as propellants,and a higher specific impulse is expected.The ablation quality,morphology,and plume distribution of various metals(aluminium alloy,red copper,and carbon steel)with different laser energies were studied experimentally.The ablation morphology and plume distribution of red copper were more uniform,as compared to those of other metals,and the ablation quality was higher,indicating its greater suitability for LA-PPT.The plume generated by nanosecond laser ablation of aluminium alloy expanded faster,which indicated that the response time of the thruster with aluminium alloy as the propellant was shorter.In addition,when the background pressure was 0.005 Pa,an obvious plume splitting phenomenon was observed in the ablation plume of the pulsed laser irradiating aluminium alloy,which may significantly reduce the utilisation rate of the propellant.

Mechanisms of Streamer Propagation Affected by Driven Voltage Polarity in a Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet

A two-dimensional self-consistent fluid model is used to investigate the effects of DC-voltage polarity in plasma initiation and propagation of helium plasma jet.The simulation results indicate that the difference in initial breakdown for the positive jet and negative jet leads to a difference in the electron density of about 4 orders of magnitude,even with the same initial electric field,which also influences the subsequent propagation.In the propagation process of negative jets,the ionization process exists in a longer gas channel behind the streamer head.In addition,the drift process to the infinite grounded electrode driven by the electric field results in higher energy consumption in the ionization process.However,in the positive jet,the ionization process mainly exists in the streamer head.Therefore,the differences in the initial breakdown and propagation process make the electric field intensity and the ionization weaker in the streamer head of the negative jet,which explains the weaker and shorter appearance of the negative jet compared to the positive jet.Our model can adequately reproduce the experimental results,viz.a bullet-like propagation in the positive jet and a continuous plasma plume in the negative jet.Furthermore,it also indicates that the streamer velocity shows the same variations as the electron drift velocity for both positive and negative jets.

微阴极电弧推力器羽流探针诊断研究

微阴极电弧推力器(micro-cathode arc thruster,μCAT)具备功率低和结构简单的特点,能够满足微纳卫星的任务需求,具有良好的发展前景。μCAT羽流的诊断可以揭示推力器的加速机理,对提高其性能具有重要意义。利用朗缪尔三探针对μCAT羽流进行诊断,得到了μCAT羽流不同位置的电子温度、电子密度和离子速度等羽流特性,研究了外加磁场、充电时间和阴极材料对羽流特性的影响。研究结果表明,μCAT放电初期产生的等离子体电子温度较高,密度较大;随着等离子体向下游运动,电子温度和电子密度降低,离子速度增大;外加磁场的磁感应强度越强,电子温度和离子速度越高,电子密度有所降低;磁场位置适当向推力器下游平移,能够有效提高推力器中轴线的电子密度;μCAT充电时间越长,电子温度、电子密度和离子速度越大;相比于CuW和AgW阴极,Ti阴极羽流的电子温度更高,电子密度更低。

毛细管脉冲等离子体推力器等离子羽流分团现象与等效速度测量

毛细管型脉冲等离子体推力器采用固态工质,电热加速机制,结构简单可靠,是一种具有应用价值的微纳卫星低功率电推进系统。本文建立电学和光学联合诊断系统,对毛细管脉冲等离子体推力器等离子体羽流演变过程进行了研究。由于放电电流振荡,推力器等离子体羽流存在二次建立过程。初始阶段等离子体羽流中主要包含带电粒子组分,二次建立阶段等离子体羽流主要包含中性成分。利用光电二极管阵列和窄带滤光片建立了飞行时间法,获得了不同放电电压、腔体内径和腔体长度下等离子体羽流分团的等效速度演变特性。结果表明,电热加速机制能够使带电组分和中性成分获得较为良好的加速效果(>10km/s)。在一定放电能量下,放电腔体长度小于25mm有利于获得较优性能参数。等离子体羽流等效速度结果能够较为准确地反映推力器输出比冲和效率参数变化规律,可作为推力器输出参数便捷有效的评估手段。

Numerical study of the radio-frequency biased accelerating system in ion thrusters

A 2D-3V implicit immersed-finite-element particle-in-cell(IFE-PIC)model is introduced to investigate the radio-frequency(RF)self-bias accelerating system applied in the RF ion thruster.A set of holes in a two-grid system with slit apertures is simulated in Cartesian coordinates.The characteristics of the plasma plume,such as the ion density,the neutralization rate and the ion and electron current density were investigated for different RF voltage amplitudes(600-1200V)and frequencies(6-30 MHz).Furthermore,the performance of the thruster was also carefully studied.The simulation results show that a well-focused plasma beam can be formed when the voltage amplitude is larger than 900 V and the frequency exceeds the reciprocal of ion transit time(≥12 MHz)in our simulation cases.The performance of the system can be evidently improved by increasing the voltage amplitude and the frequency,and the losses of the particle and thrust are reduced correspondingly.The bulk region of the plasma beam downstream shows good quasi-neutrality,and the ions are dominant in the peripheral region when a well-focused state is achieved.The high ion density beamlet in the periphery of the ion beam is closer to the axis when the voltage amplitude is increasing,while it is expanded radially when increasing the frequency.Backstream electrons have been observed upstream,and this mainly occurs in the phase in which the electron cannot escape.

TC4钛合金低真空20kW激光焊接特性研究

为探究厚壁钛合金在不同环境压力下的激光焊接特性,采用低真空激光焊接技术对Ti6Al4V合金进行非熔透焊接试验研究,分析了亚气氛环境压力对钛合金万瓦级激光焊接焊缝成形、焊接气孔、等离子体羽、熔池及匙孔的影响规律,并探讨亚气氛环境可以改善万瓦级激光焊接质量的可能原因。研究结果表明:环境压力对焊缝熔深、熔池宽度及匙孔上表面开口直径的影响存在一个临界区间即104 Pa数量级,达到临界区间后焊缝熔深会显著增加,熔池宽度、孔口直径显著减小。造成这种现象的可能原因之一是等离子体羽的突变,亚气氛环境激光焊接等离子体羽被明显抑制,对激光束能量传输的干扰效应降低。

纳秒脉冲激光辐照铝靶碎片动态响应的仿真研究

为了研究纳秒脉冲激光与铝靶碎片的相互作用规律,建立了纳秒脉冲激光辐照铝靶碎片的动态响应仿真模型,采用COMSOL软件分析了不同作用时间和不同入射激光功率下的等离子体反喷羽流动力学特性,得到了不同激光参数变化对脉冲激光辐照铝靶碎片产生等离子体反喷羽流的演化规律。结果表明,相同脉冲激光功率作用下等离子体羽流反喷速度随作用时间的增加而增大;相同脉冲激光时间作用下,随着激光功率增加,等离子体反喷羽流的最大速度也不断增大;由于受等离子体屏蔽效应的影响,反喷羽流速度在25μs附近达到最大,在700 kW时最大速率为1.87×104 m/s,此时等离子体反喷羽流扩散半径增加了17 mm。该研究为纳秒脉冲激光辐照铝靶空间碎片降轨移除工程化应用提供了理论参考。

平行场刷形等离子体羽的放电特性及其聚合物表面改性

大气压等离子体射流可以在开放空间产生富含活性粒子的等离子体羽,在材料生长、表面改性、生物医疗等领域具有广泛的应用前景.由于通常等离子体羽的截面尺度很小,造成等离子体射流应用时效率较低,因此,急需产生大尺度的等离子体羽.目前报道的大尺度的等离子体羽多是交叉场等离子体羽,相比于平行场等离子体羽而言其化学活性较低.针对于此,本文利用双电极结构的平行场氩气射流,通过交流激励产生了大尺度的刷形等离子体羽.利用电学、光学和光谱学手段对刷形等离子体羽的放电特性进行了表征.在此基础上,利用该平行场刷形等离子体羽对聚合物(聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯(PET))进行了改性研究.通过研究PET表面的水接触角(WCA)、拉曼光谱、X线光电子能谱(XPS)和原子力显微镜(AFM)照片,发现刷形等离子体羽能实现PET表面的大尺度均匀改性.改性后的PET表面含氧极性官能团数量显著增加,并且PET表面的粗糙度增加,因此亲水性得到改善,此种亲水性改良对不同的聚合物具有普适性.这些研究结果对于大尺度等离子体射流的深入研究及等离子体表面改性的应用均具有一定参考价值.