Study of the physical discharge properties of a Ar/O2 DC plasma jet

Abstract

In this paper, the physical properties of plasma discharge in a manufactured DC plasma jet operating with the Ar/O2 gaseous mixture are studied. Moreover, the optical emission spectroscopy technique is used to perform the experimental measurements. The obtained emission spectra are analyzed and, the plasma density, rotational, vibrational and electronic temperature are calculated. The NO emission lines from $$ {\text{NO }}\upgamma \left( {{\text{A}}^{2} {{\Sigma }}^{ + } \to {\text{X}}^{2} {{\Pi }}_{\text{r}} } \right) $$ electronic transition are observed. It is seen that, at the higher argon contributions in Ar/O2 gaseous mixture, the emission intensities from argon ions will increase. Moreover, while the vibrational and excitation temperatures are increased at the higher input DC currents, they will decrease at the higher Ar percentages in the Ar/O2 gaseous mixture. Furthermore, at the higher DC currents and Ar contributions, both the plasma electron density and dissociation fraction of oxygen atoms are increased.