Measurement of electron density and electron temperature of a cascaded arc plasma using laser Thomson scattering compared to an optical emission spectroscopic approach

As advanced linear plasma sources, cascaded arc plasma devices have been used to generate steady plasma with high electron density, high particle flux and low electron temperature. To measure electron density and electron temperature of the plasma device accurately, a laser Thomson scattering(LTS) system, which is generally recognized as the most precise plasma diagnostic method, has been established in our lab in Dalian University of Technology. The electron density has been measured successfully in the region of 4.5?×?10(19)m~(-3) to7.1?×?10~(20)m~(-3) and electron temperature in the region of 0.18 eV to 0.58 eV. For comparison,an optical emission spectroscopy(OES) system was established as well. The results showed that the electron excitation temperature(configuration temperature) measured by OES is significantly higher than the electron temperature(kinetic electron temperature) measured by LTS by up to 40% in the given discharge conditions. The results indicate that the cascaded arc plasma is recombining plasma and it is not in local thermodynamic equilibrium(LTE). This leads to significant error using OES when characterizing the electron temperature in a non-LTE plasma.     

Characterization of a microsecond pulsed non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure Ar plasma using laser scattering and optical emission spectroscopy

A non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure argon(Ar) plasma excited by microsecond pulse is studied experimentally by laser scattering and optical emission spectroscopy(OES), and theoretically by collisional-radiative(CR) model. More specifically, the electron temperature and electron density of plasma are obtained directly by the laser Thomson scattering, the gas temperature is measured by laser Raman scattering, the optical emissions of excited Ar states of plasma are measured by OES. The laser scattering results show that the electron temperature is about 1 eV which is similar to that excited by 60 Hz AC power, but the gas temperature is as low as 300 K compared to about 700 K excited by 60 Hz AC power. It is shown that the microsecond pulsed power supply, rather than nanosecond ones, is short enough to reduce the gas temperature of atmospheric pressure plasma to near room temperature. The electron temperature and electron density are also obtained by CR model based on OES, and find that the intensities of the optical emission intensity lines of 727.41, 811.73, 841.08, 842.83, 852.44 and 912.86 nm of Ar can be used to characterize the behavior of electron density and electron temperature, it is very useful to quickly estimate the activity of the atmospheric pressure Ar plasma in many applications.     

Spectroscopic Measurement of Shock Waves in an Arcjet Plasma Expanding Through a Conical Nozzle

A diamond-shaped shock wave was created in a helium arcjet plasma. Visi- ble/ultraviolet emission spectroscopy was used to investigate the condition for the formation of stable shocks and to determine characteristics of the plasma. Dependence of the position of the shock front on the gas pressure in the expansion region was investigated. It was found that the shock wave arises from the collision of plasma particles and residual neutral atoms in that region. Continuum and line spectra of neutral helium were measured, from which the electron temper- atures were derived. The electron density was deduced from the Inglis-Teller limit of the He I 2p 3 P-3d 3 D series. The temperature and density were found to have almost constant values of 0.2 eV and 8.5×10 13 cm 3 , respectively, across the shock front.     

Spectral Characteristics of Laser-Induced Graphite Plasma in Ambient Air

An experimental setup of laser-induced graphite plasma was built and the spectral characteristics and properties of graphite plasma were studied. From the temporal behavior of graphite plasma, the duration of CN partials(B~2∑~+→X~2∑~+) emission was two times longer than that of atomic carbon, and all intensities reached the maximum during the early stage from0.2 μs to 0.8 μs. The electron temperature decreased from 11807 K to 8755 K, the vibration temperature decreased from 8973 K to 6472 K, and the rotational temperature decreased from7288 K to 4491 K with the delay time, respectively. The effect of the laser energy was also studied, and it was found that the thresholds and spectral characteristics of CN molecular and C atomic spectroscopy presented great differences. At lower laser energies, the electron excited temperature, the electron density, the vibrational temperature and rotational temperature of CN partials increased rapidly. At higher laser energies, the increasing of electron excited temperature and electron density slow down, and the vibrational temperature and rotational temperature even trend to saturation due to plasma shielding and dissociation of CN molecules. The relationship among the three kinds of temperatures was T_(elec)T_(vib)T_(rot) at the same time. The electron density of the graphite plasma was in the order of 10~(17)cm~(-3) and 10~(18)cm~(-3).     

Numerical Study of Radiation Emission from the Argon Plasma Focus

Ion populations and emitted spectrum of argon plasma have been calculated using the POPULATE and SPECTRA codes of the RATION suite at different conditions (electron temperatures, electron densities, ion densities, plasma size) for LTE and NLTE models. Expected argon plasma spectra at certain electron temperature range have been plotted. The suitable electron temperatures ranges for argon plasma soft X-ray (3–4 keV) emission and EUV (60–200 eV) emission have been investigated. POPULATE and SPECTRA codes have been presented as a good assisted tools for plasma focus diagnostics.     

Electrical characters and optical emission spectra of VBD coupled SBD excited by sine AC voltage in atmospheric air

In this paper,volume coupled surface barrier discharge(V-SBD) with three structures possessing different volumes is excited by sine AC power in atmospheric air.Discharge images,waveforms of applied voltage and discharge current,and optical emission spectra simulating rotational and vibrational temperatures are recorded and analyzed.The effects of applied voltage on emission intensities of N_2(C~3Π_u→ B~3Π_g) and N_2~+(B~2∑_u~+ → X~2E_g~+),and rotational and vibrational temperatures are investigated.The results show that as applied voltage rises,emission intensities and rotational temperatures increase while vibrational temperatures decrease.In addition it is found that,as applied voltage varies,the rotational temperature of surface discharge changes faster than that of volume discharge.     

Analysis of an Ar plasma jet in a dielectric barrier discharge conjugated with a microsecond pulse

In this work, an Ar plasma jet generated by an AC-microsecond-pulse-driven dielectric barrier discharge reactor, which had two ring-shaped electrodes isolated from the ambient atmosphere by transformer oil, was investigated. By special design of the oil insulation, a chemically active Ar plasma jet along with a safe and stable plasma process as well as low emission of CO and NO_x were successfully achieved. The results indicated that applied voltage and frequency were basic factors influencing the jet temperature, discharge power, and jet length, which increased significantly with the two operating parameters. Meanwhile, gas velocity affected the jet temperature in a reverse direction. In comparison with a He plasma jet, the Ar plasma jet had relatively low jet temperature under the same level of the input parameters, being preferable for bio-applications. The Ar plasma jet has been tested to interact with human skin within 5 min without the perception of burnt skin and electrical shock.     

Observation of the Emission Spectra of an Atmospheric Pressure Radio-frequency Plasma Jet

An atmospheric pressure plasma jet （APPJ） using radio-frequency （13.56 MHz） power has been developed to produce homogeneous glow discharge at low temperature. With optical emission spectroscopy, we observed the excited species （atomic helium, atomic oxygen and metastable oxygen） generated in this APPJ and their dependence on gas composition ratio and RF power. O and O2（b1∑g^＋） are found in the effluent outside the jet by measuring the emission spectra of effluent perpendicular to the jet. An interesting phenomenon is found that there is an abnormal increase of O emission intensity （777.4 nm） between 10 mm and 40 mm away from the nozzle. This observation result is very helpful in practical operation.     

直流电弧等离子体点火器射流特性研究

采用光谱仪测量了等离子体点火器出口射流的发射光谱,利用玻尔兹曼曲线斜率法计算了射流的电子温度,并通过电离平衡方程计算了射流气体温度,获得点火器出口射流长度、射流速度、电子温度和射流温度随弧电流及进口氩气流量的变化规律。并分析了航空等离子体电弧射流中是否可使用电子温度来代替射流气体温度。实验表明：弧电流随着进口氩气流量的增大而减小;出口射流长度和速度随弧电流的增大而增大,随进口氩气流量的增大先增大后减小;出口电子温度、电子密度和射流温度随弧电流的增大而升高,随氩气流量的增大而降低。     

Characteristics of a Normal Glow Discharge Excited by DC Voltage in Atmospheric Pressure Air

Atmospheric pressure glow discharges were generated in an air gap between a needle cathode and a water anode. Through changing the ballast resistor and gas gap width between the electrodes, it has been found that the discharges are in normal glow regime judged from the currentvoltage characteristics and visualization of the discharges. Results indicate that the diameter of the positive column increases with increasing discharge current or increasing gap width. Optical emission spectroscopy is used to calculate the electron temperature and vibrational temperature. Both the electron temperature and the vibrational temperature increases with increasing discharge current or increasing gap width. Spatially resolved measurements show that the maxima of electron temperature and vibrational temperature appeared in the vicinity of the needle cathode.     

Spatiotemporal characteristics of nanosecond pulsed discharge in an extremely asymmetric electric field at atmospheric pressure

In this paper,high resolution temporal-spatial diagnostics are employed to research the optical characteristics of nanosecond pulsed dielectric barrier discharge in needle-plate electrode configuration.Temporal-spatial distributions of discharge images,the emission intensities of opticaI emission spectra,and plasma vibrational and rotational temperatures are investigated.By analyzing the evolution of vibrational and rotational temperatures in space and time dimensions,the energy distribution and energy transfer process in plasma are also discussed.It is found that a diffuse structure with high density plasma concentrated in the region near the needle tip can be presented in nanosecond pulsed discharge,and an obvious energy transfer from electronic energy to vibration energy can be observed in each discharge pulse.     

Spectroscopic characterisation of a cross-flow plasma jet

The aim of this work is to study the thermal characteristics and electron density based on atomic and molecular emission of a new plasma jet at atmospheric pressure. The novelty of our jet is its generation with a single electrode, the plasma gas flowing perpendicularly to the RF powered electrode (13.56 MHz, 10³ V). Optical emission of the plasma was collected in two ways: the normal viewing mode and the axial viewing mode. The plasma characteristic parameters as function of helium flow-rate, plasma power and position of the investigated zone were studied. The excitation, vibrational and rotational temperatures are in the range of 1500-2350 K, 3500-4400 K and 450-1100 K, respectively. The electron number densities are in the range of 10¹³-10¹⁴ cm⁻³. For qualitative observations regarding the atomic and molecular processes in the plasma we used the relative intensities of the most representative lines of He, N₂, O, H and .     

Experimental and simulation investigation of electrical and plasma parameters in a low pressure inductively coupled argon plasma

The electrical and plasma parameters of a low pressure inductively coupled argon plasma are investigated over a wide range of parameters(RF power, flow rate and pressure) by diverse characterizations. The external antenna voltage and current increase with the augment of RF power, whereas decline with the enhancement of gas pressure and flow rate conversely.Compared with gas flow rate and pressure, the power transfer efficiency is significantly improved by RF power, and achieved its maximum value of 0.85 after RF power injected excess125 W. Optical emission spectroscopy(OES) provides the local mean values of electron excited temperature and electron density in inductively coupled plasma(ICP) post regime, which vary in a range of 0.81 eV to 1.15 eV and 3.7×10~(16)m~(-3)to 8.7×10~(17)m~(-3)respectively. Numerical results of the average magnitudes of electron temperature and electron density in twodimensional distribution exhibit similar variation trend with the experimental results under different operating condition by using COMSOL Multiphysics. By comprehensively understanding the characteristics in a low pressure ICP, optimized operating conditions could be anticipated aiming at different academic and industrial applications.     

Spectroscopic study of recombination continuum in arc-heated cold expanding plasma jet

Cold recombining H₂–He mixture plasma and pure He plasma with low electron density are generated by arc discharge followed by expansion into a lower-pressure vessel, and their recombination radiation is analyzed by optical emission spectroscopic measurement. Their electron temperature is determined from the continuum spectra, which is found to agree with those determined from the line intensities of LTE levels within 10% accuracy. Meanwhile, the agreement of electron density is found to be about 20–25%. It is experimentally found that the conventional theory of spectral intensity of the recombination continuum explains the observed continuum spectra very well even for very low electron temperature within the range from 0.07 to 0.2 eV.     

Influences of the inner diameter of the solid shielding tube on the characteristics of the radio-frequency cold atmospheric plasma jet

Active control of the local environment of the cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) jet is of great importance in actual applications since the CAP operates in an open atmosphere with the inevitable entrainment of the surrounding cold air. In this paper, the solid shielding effects of the cylindrical quartz tubes with different inner diameters on the characteristics of the CAP jets driven by a radio-frequency (RF) power supply are studied experimentally. The experimental results show that the total length of the shielded plasma jet can be increased significantly by an appropriate combination of the quartz tube inner diameter and that of the plasma generator nozzle exit with other parameters being unchanged. This phenomenon may be qualitatively attributed to the loss of diffusion of the charged particles in the radial direction under different inner diameters of the quartz tubes. Compared with the plasma free jet, the plasma shielding jet is produced with optimized parameters including longer plasma jet length, higher concentrations of chemically reactive species, higher rotational, vibrational, and electron excitation temperatures when the inner diameters of the solid shielding tube and the generator nozzle exit are the same. A maximum plasma jet length of 52.0 cm is obtained in contrast to that of 5.0 cm of the plasma free jet in this study. The experimental results indicate that the solid shielding effect provides a new method for the active control of the local environment of the RF-CAP jet operating in an open atmosphere.     

Time-Resolved Optical Emission Spectroscopy Diagnosis of CO2 Laser-Produced SnO2 Plasma

The spectral emission and plasma parameters of SnO_2 plasmas have been investigated.A planar ceramic SnO_2 target was irradiated by a CO2 laser with a full width at half maximum of 80 ns.The temporal behavior of the specific emission lines from the SnO_2 plasma was characterized.The intensities of Sn I and Sn II lines first increased,and then decreased with the delay time.The results also showed a faster decay of Sn I atoms than that of Sn II ionic species.The temporal evolutions of the SnO_2 plasma parameters(electron temperature and density) were deduced.The measured temperature and density of SnO_2 plasma are 4.38 eV to0.5 eV and 11.38×10~(17) cm~(-3) to 1.1×10~(17) cm~(-3),for delay times between 0.1 μs and 2.2 μs.We also investigated the effect of the laser pulse energy on SnO_2 plasma.     

Effect of shock wave formation on propellant ignition in capillary discharge

In order to study the effect of shock wave formation on propellant ignition in capillary discharge, the shock wave formation process was analyzed using experimental and theoretical methods; the plasma jet temperature was measured, and closed bomb and 30 mm gun experiments were carried out. The results show that the first shock wave has a smaller value and larger range of influence, while the second shock wave has a larger value and smaller range of influence. A plasma jet can generate a shock wave at the nozzle according to the calculated plasma pressure and velocity, which is well confirmed by experiments and calculations. The plasma jet temperature is high during the formation of a shock wave and then decreases sharply. Plasma ignition can increase the burning rate of a propellant by about 30% by increasing the burning surface area of the propellant. Compared to conventional ignition, the average maximum chamber pressure and average muzzle velocity of plasma ignition are increased by 9.1 MPa and 29.3 m·s−1(∼3%), respectively, in a 30 mm gun. Plasma ignition has strong ignition ability and short ignition delay time due to the generation of a shock wave. By increasing the burning rate of the propellant, the muzzle velocity can be greatly improved when the maximum chamber pressure increases a little. The characteristics of the shock wave can be applied in the application of the capillary discharge plasma. For example, it can be applied in fusion, launching and combustion.     

Axial uniformity diagnosis of coaxial surface wave linear plasma by optical emission spectroscopy

The coaxial surface wave linear plasma with preeminent axial uniformity is developed with the 2.45 GHz microwave generator. By optical emission spectroscopy, parameters of the argon linear plasma with a length over 600 mm are diagnosed under gas pressure of 30 and 50 Pa and different microwave powers. The spectral lines of argon and Hβ (486.1 nm) atoms in excited state are observed for estimating electron excitation temperature and electron density. Spectrum bands in 305–310 nm of diatomic OH (${{\rm{A}}}^{2}{{\rm{\Sigma }}}^{+}-{{\rm{X}}}^{2}{{\rm{\Pi }}}_{{\rm{i}}}$) radicals are used to determine the molecule rotational temperature. Finally, the axial uniformity of electron density and electron excitation temperature are analyzed emphatically under various conditions. The results prove the distinct optimization of compensation from dual powers input, which can narrow the uniform coefficient of electron density and electron excitation temperature by around 40% and 22% respectively. With the microwave power increasing, the axial uniformity of both electron density and electron excitation temperature performs better. Nevertheless, the fluctuation of electron density along the axial direction appeared with higher gas pressure. The axial uniformity of coaxial surface wave linear plasma could be controlled by pressure and power for a better utilization in material processing.     

Investigation of E–H mode transition in magnetic-pole-enhanced inductively coupled neon–argon mixture plasma

In this paper, E–H mode transition in magnetic-pole-enhanced inductively coupled neon–argon mixture plasma is investigated in terms of fundamental plasma parameters as a function of argon fraction(0%–100%), operating pressure(1 Pa, 5 Pa, 10 Pa and 50 Pa), and radio frequency(RF) power(5–100 W). An RF compensated Langmuir probe and optical emission spectroscopy are used for the diagnostics of the plasma under study. Owing to the lower ionization potential and higher collision cross-section of argon, when its fraction in the discharge is increased, the mode transition occurs at lower RF power; i.e. for 0% argon and1 Pa pressure, the threshold power of the E–H mode transition is 65 W, which reduces to 20 W when the argon fraction is increased. The electron density increases with the argon fraction at afixed pressure, whereas the temperature decreases with the argon fraction. The relaxation length of the low-energy electrons increases, and decreases for high-energy electrons with argon fraction, due to the Ramseur effect. However, the relaxation length of both groups of electrons decreases with pressure due to reduction in the mean free path. The electron energy probability function(EEPF) profiles are non-Maxwellian in E-mode, attributable to the nonlocal electron kinetics in this mode; however, they evolve to Maxwellian distribution when the discharge transforms to H-mode due to lower electron temperature and higher electron density in H-mode. The tail of the measured EEPFs is found to deplete in both E-and H-modes when the argon fraction in the discharge is increased, because argon has a much lower excitation potential(11.5 eV) than neon(16.6 eV).     

Influence of target temperature on AIO emission of femtosecond laser-induced AI plasmas

The influence of the target temperature on the molecular emission of femtosecond laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was investigated experimentally.An Al target was ablated to produce laser-induced plasma.The Al target was uniformly heated to a maximum of 250 ℃.The measured molecular emission was AlO (△υ =0) from the femtosecond LIBS of the Al target.The measurements indicated that the molecular emission of AIO increased as the temperature of the A1 target increased.In addition,a two-temperature model was used to simulate the evolution of the electron and lattice temperature of the Al target with different initial temperatures.The simulated results showed that the electron and lattice temperatures of Al irradiated by the femtosecond laser increased as the initial temperature of the A1 target increased;also,the simulated ablated depth increased.Therefore,an increase in the initial A1 target temperature resulted in an enhancement in the spectral signal of AlO from the femtosecond LIBS of Al,which was directly related to the increase in the size of the ablated crater.The study suggested that increasing the temperature of the target improves the intensity of molecular emission in femtosecond LIBS.