Microplasma Jet Research Articles

Spatio-temporal distribution of absolute densities of argon metastable 1s5 state in the diffuse area of an atmospheric pressure nanosecond pulsed argon microplasma jet propagating into ambient air

Atmospheric microplasma jets (MPJs) sustained in rare gases have gained increased attention due to their potential to generate highly reactive species. In this paper, we present space- and time-resolved argon metastable densities, Ar(1s5), measured in an atmospheric pressure MPJ operated in Ar and propagating into ambient air using tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (1s5 → 2p9 optical transition). The MPJ was produced using a dielectric barrier discharge energized by short duration (230 ns) high-voltage positive pulses (4.2–6.2 kV) at a repetition frequency of 20 kHz. The spectral absorption line profile was recorded and allowed measurements of the absolute metastable Ar(1s5) density integrated in the line-of-sight of the laser beam under various operating conditions of the MPJ. The results reveal a sensitive dependence of the Ar(1s5) density on spatial coordinates, i.e., distance from the exit of the capillary tube of the discharge and from the axis of the argon jet. The highest Ar(1s5) densities of about 3 × 1013 cm−3 were measured at the axis of the argon jet at longitudinal distances between 4 and 5.5 mm downstream from the nozzle of the tube. The temporal distribution of the Ar(1s5) density, which presents three maxima, is thoroughly discussed in this paper. The spatial distribution of the effective Ar(1s5) lifetime (<250 ns) is also reported, giving some insight into the surrounding environment of the argon metastable atoms. The determined spatiotemporal distributions of the Ar(1s5) density can be useful for the optimization of argon MPJs for different applications like surface or biomedical processes.

Weakly charged round micro-plasma jet flows into vacuum

This paper presents a model for highly dilute microplasma jet flows expanding into a vacuum from a round exit, with given number density, bulk velocity, temperature, and potential at the exit. The Debye length at the exit is assumed to be large, the quasi-neutral condition is adopted to treat charges, and the potential field is computed with the Boltzmann relation. At farfield, the exit degenerates as a point source, and simplified analytical formulas for the density, velocity, temperatures, potential, and electric field components are obtained. From the crucial centerline properties, exact but more compact solutions are further developed. The treatment is based on the gas kinetic theory, and the results are analytical and generic. The results include rich physics and offer insights into better understanding of many existing models in the literature, for example, the cosine law plume model shall be used with caution. The current results can be widely applicable to estimate the whole flow and potential fields, with reduced simulation and measurement costs. Farfield property estimations can be performed without numerical simulations and measurements. Based on these results from this work, more advanced models may be further developed.

Microstructured SiOx thin films deposited from hexamethyldisilazane and hexamethyldisiloxane using atmospheric pressure thermal microplasma jet

Mictrostructured silicon oxide (SiOx) thin films were deposited on glass and metal substrates from 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexamethyldisilazane (HMDSN) and hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) by using atmospheric-pressure thermal microplasma jet. Two kinds of string-like products, randomly bent string-like products and linear string-like products, were deposited and they formed microstructured films. The bent string-like products formed labyrinth-like structures and the linear string-like products lay in parallel to form a large aligned structure. The width of both the bent and linear string-like products was from 1 to 3 μm, regardless of the kind of the precursor but depending on the plasma irradiation conditions. The influence of various surface microstructure of substrates on the formation of the SiOx microstructure was investigated to make clear the mechanism for the formation of the microstructures.

Flexible, Reusable and Ultra-Thin Parylene-C/Cr Shadow Mask for Versatile Micropatterning Applications on Planar and Nonplanar Surfaces

In this paper, a reusable, flexible, and ultra-thin parylene-C/Cr shadow mask for fabricating diverse micropatterns on arbitrary surfaces is introduced. The shadow mask is composed of 3- $\mu \text{m}$ parylene-C film and 100-nm Cr layer. The flexible nature of this ultra-thin shadow mask makes it easy to attach to any surfaces. The smallest feature size of the fabricated micropatterns can reach $3~\mu \text{m}$ and the shadow mask can be reused for more than six times with good integrity and high accuracy. Various etching and deposition micropatterns with different shapes and dimensions were successfully fabricated on both flat and curved surfaces with well-defined edges and good feature transfer fidelity. With the combination of this shadow mask and an atmospheric pressure microplasma jet, selective micropatterning can be easily achieved on conventional and unconventional substrates, especially the curved and bulky objects. The potential applications of this shadow mask technology cover multiple fields, including MEMS, flexible electronics, and biomedical applications. [2018-0055]

Effect of the gas flow rate on the spatiotemporal distribution of Ar(1s5) absolute densities in a ns pulsed plasma jet impinging on a glass surface

This work presents spatial (axial-z and transversal-y) and temporal distributions of Ar(1s5) metastable absolute densities in an atmospheric pressure argon micro-plasma jet impinging on an ungrounded glass surface. Guided streamers are generated with a DBD device driven by pulsed positive high voltages of 6 kV in amplitude, ns in FWHM and 20 kHz in frequency. The argon flow rate is varied between 200 and 600 sccm. The glass plate is placed at 5 mm away from the reactor’s nozzle and perpendicular to the streamers propagation. At these conditions, a diffuse stable discharge is established after the passage of the streamers allowing the quantification of the Ar(1s5) absolute density by means of a conventional TDLAS technique coupled with emission spectroscopy and ICCD imaging. The good reproducibility of the absorption signals is demonstrated. The experiments show the strong dependence of the maximum density on the gas flow rate and the axial and transversal position. At 200 sccm, high maximum densities are obtained in a small area close to the plasma source, while with increasing flow rate this area expands towards the glass plate. In the transversal direction, density maxima are obtained in a small zone around the propagation axis of the streamers. Finally, a noticeable increase is measured on the Ar(1s5) effective lifetime close to the glass surface by varying the flow rate from 200 to 600 sccm. In overall, the effective lifetime varies between ∼25 and ∼550 ns, depending on the gas flow rate and the values of z and y coordinates. The results obtained suggest that the present system can be implemented in various applications and particularly in what concerns the detection of weakly volatile organic compounds present in trace amounts on different surfaces.

Comparison Study of Spatiotemporally Resolved Emissions of Nanosecond Pulsed Microplasma Jets

A single needle-electrode helium microplasma jet powered by 5- or 164-ns 8-kV pulses at 500 Hz is investigated to elucidate the impact of nanosecond pulse rising rate and pulse duration on emission behaviors of plasmas. For the 5-ns pulsed plasma, the energy per pulse was measured to be 83 $\mu \text{J}$ , and it is 1.3 times of the 164-ns pulsed plasma. Time-integrated, spatially resolved emissions revealed that the shorter pulsed plasma generated higher production of excited $N_{2}^{+}$ (by a factor of 1.3) but less excited $N_{2}$ , He, O, and OH productions. In addition, all of these species maintained their maximal emissions near the needle nozzle, implying the importance of direct electron impact on generation of these excited species. Temporally resolved emissions showed that comparable or more excited species were produced by the 5-ns pulsed plasma for the first 100 ns, and the additional productions of excited species by the longer pulsed plasma occurred during the failing phase of the 164-ns voltage pulse. These findings suggested that rising and falling rates (≥ 1011 V/s) of a voltage pulse may not only play important roles in energy deposition during the plasma initiation but also influence the plasma chemistry that is associated with the production of excited species. The voltage pulse duration became important for the streamer development and charge transfer, which critically contributed to the total production of the reactive plasma species.

Maskless Hydrophilic Patterning of the Superhydrophobic Aluminum Surface by an Atmospheric Pressure Microplasma Jet for Water Adhesion Controlling.

Superhydrophobic surfaces with hydrophilic patterns have great application potential in various fields, such as microfluidic systems and water harvesting. However, many reported preparation methods involve complicated devices and/or masks, making fabrication of these patterned surfaces time-consuming and inefficient. Here, we propose a highly efficient, simple, and maskless microplasma jet (MPJ) treatment method to prepare hydrophilic patterns such as dots, lines, and curves on superhydrophobic aluminum substrates. Contact angles, sliding angles, adhesive forces, and droplet impact behavior of the created patterns are investigated and analyzed. The prepared "dot" patterns exhibit great water adhesion, whereas the "line" patterns show anisotropic adhesion. Additionally, the MPJ treatment does not obviously change the surface structures, which makes it possible to achieve repeatable patterning on one substrate. The adhesion behavior of these patterns could be adjusted using MPJs with different diameters. MPJs with larger diameters are efficient for the creation of patterns with high water adhesion, which can be potentially used for open-channel lab-on-chip systems (e.g., continuous water transportation), whereas MPJs with smaller diameters are preferable in preparing patterns with low water adhesion for diverse applications in biomedical fields (e.g., lossless liquid droplet mixing and cell screening).

Microplasma Jet Arrays as a Therapeutic Choice for Fungal Keratitis

The clinical impact of microplasma jets on rabbit eyes infected by Candida albicans has been investigated. Arrays of such jets produce low-temperature plasma micro-columns suitable for ophthalmic therapeutics and fungal infections, in particular, and the technology is capable of being scaled to surface areas of at least 10 cm2. Keratitis was induced in the right central corneas of rabbits, whereas the left eyes served as a normal group. The rabbits were divided into the plasma non-treated group (control) and plasma treatment group. Histologic analyses of both groups showed marked reductions in the thickness, angiogenesis, and opacity of all rabbit corneas following plasma treatment. Indeed, for treatment times beyond 14 days, infected eyes exhibited no significant differences from the normal group. Healing of rabbit eyes infected by Candida albicans apparently proceeds by disrupting corneal epithelial proliferation, and by reducing fibrotic changes in the stroma. This study demonstrates that low-temperature plasma jets are remarkably effective in healing Candida albicans-infected corneas, thereby providing a promising medical treatment option for keratitis.

Narrowband attenuation at 157 GHz by a plasma photonic crystal

A plasma photonic crystal operating as a notch filter at 157 GHz () has been demonstrated. Comprising a 5 × 10 array of microplasma jets, having a pitch and jet diameter of 1 mm and 400 µm, respectively, this two-dimensional plasma crystal exhibits an unexpectedly narrow stopband (Δ = 1.0 GHz (FWHM) = 0.6% ) and a maximum, time-averaged attenuation of 5% at 157.0 GHz. Simulations accurately predict the position of line center, and the assumption of a time-averaged electron density of 3 × 1013 cm−3 is necessary for the predicted magnitude of peak attenuation (at 157 GHz) to be in agreement with experiment. Reconfigurable plasma photonic crystals, synthesized from microcavity plasmas and providing electromagnetic functionality in the 100 GHz–1 THz spectral region (300 µm ⩽ λ ⩽ 3 mm), are now feasible.

Microplasma jet cleaning of Langmuir probes for methane-air premixed flame diagnostics

This paper presents the use of an atmospheric microplasma jet to preserve the measurement integrity of Langmuir probes for ion density measurements of an atmospheric methane-air premixed flame. Soot produced from incomplete combustion is able to deposit on the probe filaments and alter measurement characteristics over time. The effect of argon microplasma probe cleaning on current measurements was investigated, with probe flame exposure of 2–30 s and 20 s of microplasma cleaning. In the noncleaned probes, a decrease in the current measurements (up to 64% reduction) was observed in subsequent tests of probes at all exposure times. The probe cleaning experiments yielded a near constant current reading, even after subsequent flame exposures. The resulting plasma densities showed similar trends.

Microplasma jet treatment of bovine serum albumin coatings for controlling enzyme and cell attachment

We investigated a new approach to control protein and cell attachment inside 96-well polystyrene plates. The wells were first coated with bovine serum albumin (BSA) to inhibit cell and protein attachment. The BSA-coated wells were then treated with a helium microplasma jet for increasing times that resulted in gradual removal of BSA from the surface. It was found that the amount of enzyme and cell attachment could be controlled in the wells where BSA was only partially removed by the microplasma jet. In addition to the surface coverage of BSA, the new surface chemistry induced by the microplasma jet treatment also had an important role in the control of enzyme and cell attachment. In summary, microplasma jet treatment of BSA-coated polystyrene wells is a simple and effective method for controlling enzyme and cell attachment. This might find use for high-throughput screening of new cell culture platforms where control over the level protein, enzyme or cell adherence is needed in order to maintain a specific cell function.

Electric field measurements in an atmospheric-pressure microplasma jet using Stark polarization emission spectroscopy of helium atom

Electric field in an atmospheric-pressure microplasma jet, determined by a non-invasive Stark polarization spectroscopy of He 447.1 nm line, is reported in this work. The microplasma jet was driven by a positive pulsed dc power supply with pulse rising time of 60 ns. First, the electric field strength in the streamer head (Eh) is in the range of 9–17 kV/cm. Second, as the streamer head is shooting out of the tube exit, Eh starts to increase rapidly and then decreases after reaching a maximum of 17 kV/cm, indicating the same tendency of streamer velocity. However, a further analysis reveals that the relationship between the electric field and the streamer velocity is non-linear. Third, although the pulse width plays an important role in the control of the length of plasma plume, it has a minor effect on Eh. Fourth, the electric field strength in the secondary discharge is estimated to be less than 6 kV/cm, which further validates the similarity between the secondary discharge and negative discharge. Finally, over atmospheric-pressure plasmas transferring across the glass tube, the electric field in the head of newborn secondary streamer is about 10 kV/cm.

Damage-free polymer surface modification employing inward-type plasma

Inward-type plasmas, which spread upstream against the gas flow in the capillary tube where the gas is discharged, can react with samples placed near the entrance of such a capillary tube. In this study, surface modification of polymer surfaces is conducted using inward plasma. The modification is also done by conventional microplasma jet, and the modified surfaces with two plasma techniques are characterized by contact angle measurement, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Although inward-plasma-treated surfaces are less hydrophilic than conventional plasma-treated ones, they are still sufficiently hydrophilic for surface coatings. In addition, it turns out that the polymer surfaces irradiated with the inward plasma yield much smoother surfaces than those treated with the conventional plasma jet. Thus, the inward plasma treatment is a viable technique when the surface flatness is crucial, such as for the surface coating of plastic lenses.

DC Microplasma Jet for Local a:C-H Deposition Operated in SEM Chamber.

A DC micro plasma jet for local micro deposition of a:C-H film in the ambient vacuum of scanning electron microscope (SEM) chamber is proposed. Acetylene (C2H2) gas was locally fed into the chamber through an orifice shaped gas nozzle (OGN) at 6.6 sccm in flow rate by applying 80 kPa-inlet pressure with an additional direct pumping system equipped on the SEM chamber. As a cathode, a cut of n-type silicon (Si) wafer was placed right in front of the OGN at 200 μm gap distance. By applying a positive DC voltage to the OGN, C2H2 plasma was generated locally between the electrodes. During discharge, the voltage increased and the current decreased due to deposition of insulating film on the Si wafer with resulting in automatic termination of discharge at the constant source voltage. A symmetric mountain-shaped a:C-H film of 5 μm height was deposited at the center by operation for 15 s. Films were deposited with variation of gas flow rate, gap distance, voltage and current, and deposition time. The films were directly observed by SEM and analyzed by surface profiler and by Raman spectroscopy.

Low temperature atmospheric microplasma jet array for uniform treatment of polymer surface for flexible electronics

In this paper, the uniformity of polymer film etching by an atmospheric pressure He/O2 microplasma jet array (μPJA) is first investigated with different applied voltage. Plasma characteristics of μPJA were recorded by optical discharge images. Morphologies and chemical compositions of polymer film etched by μPJA were analyzed by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). By increasing the applied voltage from 8.5 kV to 16.4 kV, the non-uniformity of the luminous intensity of the plasma jets increases. It is interesting that the plasma treated regions are actually composed of an etched region and modification region, with distinct morphologies and chemical compositions. The diameters of the etched parylene-C film show the increase of non-uniformity with higher applied voltage. SEM results show that the non-uniformity of surface morphologies of both the modification regions and etched regions increases with the increase of applied voltage. EDS and XPS results also present the significant effect of higher applied voltage on the non-uniformity of surface chemical compositions of both modification and etched regions. The Coulomb interaction of the streamer heads and the hydrodynamic interaction between the plasma jets and the surrounding air are considered to be responsible for this phenomenon. The results shown in this work can help improve the processing quality of polymer film etched by an atmospheric pressure microplasma jet array and two applications are demonstrated to illustrate the uniform downstream surface treatment.

Deposition of organosilicone thin film from hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) with 50 kHz/33 MHz dual-frequency atmospheric-pressure plasma jet

The deposition of organosilicone thin films from hexamethyldisiloxane(HMDSO) by using a dual-frequency (50 kHz/33 MHz) atmospheric-pressure micro-plasma jet with an admixture of a small volume of HMDSO and Ar was investigated. The topography was measured by using scanning electron microscopy. The chemical bond and composition of these films were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results indicated that the as-deposited film was constituted by silicon, carbon, and oxygen elements, and FTIR suggested the films are organosilicon with the organic component (–CHx) and hydroxyl functional group(–OH) connected to the Si–O–Si backbone. Thin-film hardness was recorded by an MH–5–VM Digital Micro-Hardness Tester. Radio frequency power had a strong impact on film hardness and the hardness increased with increasing power.

Use of thermocouples and argon line broadening for gas temperature measurement in a radio frequency atmospheric microplasma jet.

This paper presents the use of thermocouples and line broadening of argon 2p-1s emission lines for the measurement of gas temperature of an atmospheric argon microplasma jet. The measured temperatures are compared with rotational spectra fitting of OH (A-X) and N2 (C-B) emission. An rf microplasma jet with two electrical configurations and different temperature ranges was used. The calculated gas temperatures with thermocouples, argon lines, and OH ranged from 290 to 423 K and 393-510 K for the two configurations, depending on the rf power. The temperature from fitting the N2 spectra overestimated the gas temperatures in both configurations (593-680 and 664-853 K). The non-nitrogen temperature measurements agree well with each other within the measurement uncertainty. The results show that not all optical emission temperature methods are appropriate and the accuracy of argon line broadening is dependent on the device configuration. The results also show that conventional thermocouples are surprisingly accurate and viable for these plasmas.

Synergistic Effect of Atmospheric-pressure Plasma and TiO2 Photocatalysis on Inactivation of Escherichia coli Cells in Aqueous Media.

Atmospheric-pressure plasma and TiO2 photocatalysis have been widely investigated separately for the management and reduction of microorganisms in aqueous solutions. In this paper, the two methods were combined in order to achieve a more profound understanding of their interactions in disinfection of water contaminated by Escherichia coli. Under water discharges carried out by microplasma jet arrays can result in a rapid inactivation of E. coli cells. The inactivation efficiency is largely dependent on the feed gases used, the plasma treatment time, and the discharge power. Compared to atmospheric-pressure N2, He and air microplasma arrays, O2 microplasma had the highest activity against E. coli cells in aqueous solution, and showed >99.9% bacterial inactivation efficiency within 4 min. Addition of TiO2 photocatalytic film to the plasma discharge reactor significantly enhanced the inactivation efficiency of the O2 microplasma system, decreasing the time required to achieve 99.9% killing of E. coli cells to 1 min. This may be attributed to the enhancement of ROS generation due to high catalytic activity and stability of the TiO2 photocatalyst in the combined plasma-TiO2 systems. Present work demonstrated the synergistic effect of the two agents, which can be correlated in order to maximize treatment efficiency.

Microplasma Induced Cell Morphological Changes and Apoptosis of Ex Vivo Cultured Human Anterior Lens Epithelial Cells - Relevance to Capsular Opacification.

Inducing selective or targeted cell apoptosis without affecting large number of neighbouring cells remains a challenge. A plausible method for treatment of posterior capsular opacification (PCO) due to remaining lens epithelial cells (LECs) by reactive chemistry induced by localized single electrode microplasma discharge at top of a needle-like glass electrode with spot size ~3 μm is hereby presented. The focused and highly-localized atmospheric pressure microplasma jet with electrode discharge could induce a dose-dependent apoptosis in selected and targeted individual LECs, which could be confirmed by real-time monitoring of the morphological and structural changes at cellular level. Direct cell treatment with microplasma inside the medium appeared more effective in inducing apoptosis (caspase 8 positivity and DNA fragmentation) at a highly targeted cell level compared to treatment on top of the medium (indirect treatment). Our results show that single cell specific micropipette plasma can be used to selectively induce demise in LECs which remain in the capsular bag after cataract surgery and thus prevent their migration (CXCR4 positivity) to the posterior lens capsule and PCO formation.

A Portable Plasma Sterilizer

An atmospheric microplasma jet system powered by an commercial transformer is developed for investigating the sterilizing efficiency of Escherichia coli in different conditions. The device can be hand-held and operated in the open air. The effect of carrier gas, gas flow rate, distance and treatment time of inactivation is studied. According to the experiment, plasma jet is able to inactivate all the bacteria on the surface in 20 s when the air flow rate is 5 L/min and the distance is 2.0 cm. Besides, the sterilization efficacy with different carrier gas follows an order as bellow: N2 > air > O2 > Ar. The measurements of malondialdehyde content, protein leakage quantity and Mg content are performed as well. In addition, the SEM after plasma treatment reveals that the integrity of E. coli cells is damaged and intracellular particles are excreted into the extracellular space. With discussions upon the mechanisms of surface sterilization, it is found that during the treatment of microplasma, it is mainly the etching actions of electrons and ions on the bacilli that kill the E. coli. Chemical effects rather than physical ones that are responsible for inactivation. Furthermore, the experiment results suggest that there may be better sterilization effect with gas mixture as carrier gas.