Spatial and Temporal Behavior of a Plasma Bullet Launched by a Pulsed Cold Plasma Device

Summary form only given. Because of their ability to achieve enhanced plasma chemistry at low temperatures, pulsed plasmas are very attractive in applications that require a rich chemical environment, such as combustion. Here, we report on a cold plasma jet launched by a pulsed plasma device (the plasma pencil). The plasma pencil can generate relatively long plasma plumes at atmospheric pressure. It exhibits plasma controllability and stability, room temperature and atmospheric pressure operation, as well as low power consumption. These are desirable features of a plasma source that can be used reliably in material processing, including biomedical applications. In this work, we present the correlation between current-voltage characteristics and fast photography of the plasma plume that is in feet a small bullet -like volume of plasma traveling at unusually high velocities. A mechanism of the plasma bullet traveling under very low electric field conditions will be discussed. This is based on a streamer model where photoionization plays an important role to explain the plume dynamical behavior.