Finite Element Analysis of Electrostatic Field in Chiral Plasmas

Dandan Zou,Rong Shao,Chunmei Cui,Lanlan Nie,Lijie Chang,Kun Zhou

doi:10.1109/access.2019.2933440

Abstract

Helixes and chiralities are ubiquitous in nature and closely related to the origin of life, but the spontaneous assembly of such patterns has rarely been realized in low-temperature plasma jets which have numerous applications in biomedical engineering and materials processing. Recently chiral plasma plumes have been generated in the absence of any asymmetric factor. Under the condition of specific pulse DC discharge parameters, the discharge channels that originally propagated along a straight line turn into three dimensional helical plasma discharge channels spontaneously. And the pitch of the helixes can be guided by the external coils outside dielectric tubes in experiments. In this paper, we apply the finite element analysis method to simulate the electrostatic field of the chiral plasma guided by external coils. The effects of initial electric field and surface charges for the formation of the chiral plasma plumes are discussed respectively. These results have important implications for the production of chiral pharmaceuticals and nano-materials.

Highlights

Atmospheric-pressure plasma jets (APPJs), which generate non-equilibrium low-temperature plasmas in open air [1], rather than in confined discharge gaps as traditional dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) devices [2], [3], have recently attracted much attention due to their numerous applications in plasma biology and medicine, as well as in materials processing and nanotechnology [4]–[9]
In summary, the three-dimensional distribution of electric field under the configuration of needle electrode and helical coil is obtained by finite element simulation
It is found that the formation of the chiral plasma plume and its chiral determinant are derived from the initial electric field generated by the coil

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Atmospheric-pressure plasma jets (APPJs), which generate non-equilibrium low-temperature plasmas in open air [1], rather than in confined discharge gaps as traditional dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) devices [2], [3], have recently attracted much attention due to their numerous applications in plasma biology and medicine, as well as in materials processing and nanotechnology [4]–[9]. In the absence of external magnetic field, the stable helix plasma plumes form spontaneously within a coaxial and axisymmetric experimental set up, and present two differ-. The experimental efforts have been made that a grounded metal helical coil (without any applied potential) was added on the outer surface of the discharge tube to see its effect on the shape of the plasma [16], [17]. It suggests that the chiral plasma can be modulated and guided by using an externally mounted helical coil. The poloidal electric field which is related to the origin of chirality is analyzed

NUMERICAL MODEL

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

CONCLUSION