The elecrodeless discharge at atmospheric pressure

Summary form only given, as follows. Recently the generation and applications of atmospheric pressure plasmas received increased interest in the plasma research community. Applications such as the surface modification of materials, and the decontamination of matter have been under investigation. In this context, we introduce a new means of generating an atmospheric pressure discharge, which is suitable for use in the above-mentioned applications, and in the treatment of undesirable or polluting gases, such as VOCs. This device is a capacitively coupled discharge. It is basically made of a nonconducting tube with two independent loops of wire wrapped around it, and separated by a distance d. A stable discharge is generated inside the tube when an AC voltage of few hundred volts to few kilovolts, at a frequency of few kilohertz, is applied between the loops. One end of the tube is completely open to the outside air, and a seed gas (generally a noble gas such as helium) is introduced in the tube. The plasma generated with this method is weakly ionized, cold, and is maintained by a relatively low input power (few tens of watts, depending on the size of the tube). In this paper, the discharge electrical characteristics, its radiation emission characteristics, and the measurement relevant plasma parameters will be presented.