Dynamic behaviors and stability of atmospheric glow plasmas at 1 - 10 MHz

Summary form only given. Radio-frequency atmospheric-pressure glow discharges (APGD) have been used in a wide range of applications including etching, deposition, surface sterilization and biological manipulation. Most RF APGD are generated at 13.56 MHz, of which the current understanding is sound and the application prospect is excellent. Recently we have shown that plasma stability of RF APGD can be improved if their excitation frequency is increased. This highlights the current lack of understanding on how dynamic behaviors in general and plasma stability in particular may be influenced by the excitation frequency of RF APGD. In this contribution, we present an experimental study of RF APGD in the frequency range from 1 MHz to 10 MHz. Plasma characterization is approached from voltage and current measurements, digital and nanosecond imaging, and optical emission spectroscopy. The resulting wealth of experimental data is likely to be a useful first step towards a full understanding of operational conditions, including the choice of the excitation frequency, to design and achieve optimum RF APGD