Excitation of helical shape argon atmospheric pressure plasma jet using RF pulse modulation

Abstract

The article reports the excitation of a helical argon atmospheric pressure plasma jet using a pulse modulated 13.56 MHz radiofrequency (RF) power source. This helical structure is observed in open ambient air which is far different from the conventional conical shape. This helical structure originates due to the periodic pressure variation in the discharge region caused by pulse modulated RF (2 kHz modulation frequency (fp)) and propagates downstream into the ambient air. The geometrical characteristics of the observed structure are explored using optical imaging. Moreover, the influence of various input parameters viz., duty cycle (D), gas flow rate (Q), and RF power (P) of the modulated pulse on the formation of helical structure are studied. These helical structures have an implication on the plasma jet chemical features (enhancement of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS)) as these are involved in increase in air entrainment into the ionization region desired for various plasma applications.

17 pages, 12 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Photons, phonons, and plasmons with orbital angular momentum in plasmas

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Development and optimization of low power non-thermal plasma jet operational parameters for treating dyes and emerging contaminants
• Influence of pulse modulation frequency on helium RF atmospheric pressure plasma jet characteristics
• A Joint Calibration Technique for Improving Measurement Accuracy of Voltage and Current Probes During Synchronous Operation for RF Based Plasma Devices