Characterization of an Atmospheric Pressure Radio-Frequency Capacitive Plasma Jet

Abstract

There is a steadily growing interest in non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure plasmas for materials processing. One of the plasma sources developed for this purpose is the atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ), which is characterized by an alpha-mode of a radio-frequency (RF) discharge between two bare metallic electrodes. We developed an APPJ with planar electrodes and operated the APPJ with helium/argon process gas mixtures ranging from pure helium to pure argon and characterized the discharges. The alpha-discharge can be sustained in all process gas mixtures investigated. The sustainable electron density in the alpha-mode increases steadily with increasing argon content.