Injection of plasma plume into radio frequency atmospheric pressure glow discharge

Abstract

The influence of a high voltage sub-microsecond pulsed plasma plume on a radio frequency discharge at atmospheric pressure is studied experimentally. The discharge characteristics and dynamics of pulsed discharge and radio frequency discharge are characterized in terms of voltage and current waveforms and spatio-temporal evolution of discharge. It is found that the plasma bullet generated by pulsed discharge can inject into the radio frequency discharge region with the average travelling speed of 70 km/s. The radio frequency discharge intensity is elevated to be 3 times higher as the plasma bullet penetrating the interelectrode gap of radio frequency discharge. The enhancement is attributed to the injection of energetic electrons by the plasma bullet, which is demonstrated by the temporal evolution of discharge image intensity and optical emission spectroscopy intensity.