Mass and Energy Spectrometry of Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas

Electrical plasmas operating at atmospheric pressure are in widespread use for materials processing and in related areas such as the characterisation of surfaces. The plasma sources are of many types. improvement of their design and optimisation of their operation require high quality diagnostic data. It is very helpful, for example, to have available information on the nature and energies of the active species produced in a source and impacting on a surface. The extension of diagnostic techniques first developed for work with low pressure plasmas to a wide variety of atmospheric plasmas is discussed, together with examples of the data obtainable.