Atmospheric pressure streamer follows the turbulent argon air boundary in a MHz argon plasma jet investigated by OH-tracer PLIF spectroscopy

An open question in the research of the dynamics of non-equilibrium cold atmospheric pressure plasma jets is the influence of ambient species on streamer propagation pathways. In the present work, by means of planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF), an atmospheric pressure argon plasma jet is investigated in a laminar and turbulent gas flow regime. The flow pattern is investigated with plasma on and plasma off. It is shown that in turbulent mode, the streamer path changes according to the flow pattern changes and the resulting changes in air abundance. From a comparison of an analytical diffusion calculation and LIF measurements, the air impurity boundary is determined. Most importantly, the origin of the streamer pathway is investigated in detail, by recording the flow pattern from OH-PLIF measurements and simultaneously measuring the streamer path by an overlay technique through emission measurements. It is shown that the streamer path is correlated to the turbulent flow pattern.