Discharge Characteristics of a Cold-Atmospheric-Plasma Jet Array Generated With Single-Electrode Configuration

Abstract

In this paper, a cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) jet array is generated by a 2-D array device of seven CAP jets arranged in a honeycomb configuration and designed with single-electrode configuration as the elemental plasma jet. The work is motivated by the challenge of using inherently small atmospheric plasmas to address many large-scale processing applications. The discharge characteristics of the plasma jet array are investigated based on detailed electrical, spectroscopic, and imaging characterizations. The CAP jet array is shown to achieve good temporal jet-jet uniformity. Furthermore, the dynamic behavior of the jet discharges is studied particularly through two series of intensified-charge-coupled-device images taken at the end views. It has been found that the seven jets show a good temporal synchronization and jet-jet uniformity, as well as rich dynamics of jet-jet interactions such as a slight repulsion at surrounding jet heads, particularly for a small gas flow rate of helium. These dynamic features offer possible insights with which to better control the jet-jet interactions and further optimize the design of large-scale CAP sources.