Discharge aspects of a snake‐like plasma plume generated by an atmospheric pressure plasma jet with variable argon flow rate

Abstract

AbstractPlasma plume morphology, related to streamer behavior and active‐species distribution of plasma jets, is important for fixed‐point and precise treatment of workpieces. For a peculiar snake‐like plume, discharge aspects are investigated with varying argon flow rate (Q) in this paper. Results indicate that the plume length and distance between two neighboring peaks of the snake‐like plume increase with increasing Q. Fast photography indicates that the snake‐like plume is composed of positive streamers propagating along a reproducible serpentine trajectory, which occurs once per voltage cycle. Based on optical emission spectroscopy, electron temperature, electron density, and vibrational temperature are investigated with varying Q. All these phenomena are qualitatively analyzed finally.