Development of a stable dielectric-barrier discharge enhanced laminar plasma jet generated at atmospheric pressure

A stable nonthermal laminar atmospheric-pressure plasma source equipped with dielectric-barrier discharge was developed to realize more efficient plasma generation, with the total energy consumption reduced to nearly 25% of the original. Temperature and emission spectra monitoring indicates that this plasma is uniform in the lateral direction of the jet core region. It is also found that this plasma contains not only abundant excited argon atoms but also sufficient excited N-2 and OH. This is mainly resulted from the escape of abundant electrons from the exit, due to the sharp decrease of sustaining voltage and the coupling between ions and electrons. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4729818]