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.

Characteristic plume morphologies of atmospheric Ar and He plasma jets excited by a pulsed microwave hairpin resonator

Different discharge morphologies in atmospheric Ar and He plasmas are excited by using a pulsed microwave hairpin resonator. Ar plasmas form an arched plasma plume at the opened end of the hairpin, whereas He plumes generate only a contracted plasmas in between both tips of metal electrodes. Despite this different point, their discharge processes have three similar characteristics：（i） the ionization occurs at the main electrode firstly and then develops to the slave electrode,（ii） during the shrinking stage the middle domain of the discharge channels disappears at last, and（iii） even at zero power input（in between pulses） a weak light region always exists in the discharge channels. Both experimental results and electromagnetic simulations suggest that the discharge is resonantly excited by the local enhanced electric fields. In addition, Ar ionization and excitation energies are lower than those of He, the effect of Ar gas flow is far greater than that of He gas, and the contribution of accelerated electrons only locates at the domain with the strongest electric fields. These reasons could be used to interpret the different characteristic plume morphologies of the proposed atmospheric Ar and He plasmas.

Ionization process and distinctive characteristic of atmospheric pressure cold plasma jet driven resonantly by microwave pulses

In the present study,a coaxial transmission line resonator is constructed,which is always capable of generating cold microwave plasma jet plumes in ambient air in spite of using argon,nitrogen,or even air,respectively.Although the different kinds of working gas induce the different discharge performance,their ionization processes all indicate that the ionization enhancement has taken place twice in each pulsed periods,and the electron densities measured by the method of microwave Rayleigh scattering are higher than the amplitude order of 10^(18)m^(-3).The tail region of plasma jets all contain a large number of active particles,like NO,O,emitted photons,etc,but without O_(3).The formation mechanism and the distinctive characteristics are attributed to the resonance excitation of the locally enhanced electric fields,the ionization wave propulsion,and the temporal and spatial distribution of different particles in the pulsed microwave plasma jets.The parameters of plasma jet could be modulated by adjusting microwave power,modulation pulse parameters(modulation frequency and duty ratio),gas type and its flow rate,according to the requirements of application scenarios.