The atmospheric-pressure plasma jet: a review and comparison to other plasma sources

Atmospheric-pressure plasmas are used in a variety of materials processes. Traditional sources include transferred arcs, plasma torches, corona discharges, and dielectric barrier discharges. In arcs and torches, the electron and neutral temperatures exceed 3000°C and the densities of charge species range from 10¹⁶-10¹⁹ cm^-3. Due to the high gas temperature, these plasmas are used primarily in metallurgy. Corona and dielectric barrier discharges produce nonequilibrium plasmas with gas temperatures between 50-400°C and densities of charged species typical of weakly ionized gases. However, since these discharges are nonuniform, their use in materials processing is limited. Recently, an atmospheric-pressure plasma jet has been developed, which exhibits many characteristics of a conventional, low-pressure glow discharge. In the jet, the gas temperature ranges from 25-200°C, charged-particle densities are 10 ¹¹-10¹² cm^-3, and reactive species are present in high concentrations, i.e., 10-100 ppm. Since this source may be scaled to treat large areas, it could be used in applications which have been restricted to vacuum. In this paper, the physics and chemistry of the plasma jet and other atmospheric-pressure sources are reviewed