Ead Emile Carbone

Laser scattering on an atmospheric pressure plasma jet: disentangling Rayleigh, Raman and Thomson scattering

Laser scattering provides a very direct method for measuring the local densities and temperatures inside a plasma. We present new experimental results of laser scattering on an argon atmospheric pressure microwave plasma jet operating in an air environment. The plasma is very small so a high spatial resolution is required to study the effect of the penetration of air molecules into the plasma. The scattering signal has three overlapping contributions: Rayleigh scattering from heavy particles, Thomson scattering from free electrons and Raman scattering from molecules. The Rayleigh scattering signal is filtered out optically with a triple grating spectrometer. The disentanglement of the Thomson and Raman signals is done with a newly designed fitting method. With a single measurement we determine profiles of the electron temperature, electron density, gas temperature, partial air pressure and the N2/O2 ratio, with a spatial resolution of 50 µm, and including absolute calibration. (Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

The radial contraction of argon microwave plasmas studied by Thomson scattering

Radial electron density ne(r) and temperature Te(r) profiles of a microwave argon plasma at intermediate pressure were investigated by Thomson scattering. This method allows one to get ne(r) and Te(r) spatially resolved without any a priori assumption on the shape of the profile. Data were acquired in the pressure range 5–88 mbar where a transition from wall-stabilized to a radially contracted plasma mode was observed.It was found that the fitting of the radial profile can be done with a Bessel function for which the boundary radius R defined by ne(R) = 0 is a free parameter. For pressures above 20 mbar the electron density profile undergoes radial contraction, so R goes down from 3 mm at 5 mbar (wall position) to 2.09 mm at 88 mbar. The electron temperature Te(r) on the other hand is flat in the centre and rises towards the wall. For low pressures, this rise is moderate but for pressures of 20 mbar and above the increase is more pronounced.

Thomson scattering on non-equilibrium low density plasmas: principles, practice and challenges

In this paper, we review the main challenges related to laser Thomson scattering on low temperature plasmas. The main features of the triple grating spectrometer used to discriminate Thomson and Raman scattering signals from Rayleigh scattering and stray light are presented. The main parameters influencing the detection limit of Thomson scattering are reviewed. Laser stray light and plasma emission are two limiting factors, but Raman scattering from molecules inside the plasma will further decrease it.In the case of non-thermal plasmas at high pressure, Thomson scattering is the only technique which allows us to obtain the electron density without any prior knowledge of the plasma properties. Moreover, very high 3D spatial and temporal resolutions can easily be achieved. However, special care still needs to be taken to verify that Thomson scattering is non intrusive. The mechanisms that will lead to possible measurement errors are discussed. The wavelength-resolved scattering signal also allows us to get direct information about the electron energy distribution function in the case of incoherent light scattering.Finally, we discuss some recent applications of Thomson scattering on atmospheric pressure plasma jets, but also in the field of electron collision kinetics. Thomson scattering can be applied on atomic but also molecular plasmas. In the latter case, one needs to take into account the possible contribution of rotational Raman scattering.

Density of atoms in Ar*(3p54s) states and gas temperatures in an argon surfatron plasma measured by tunable laser spectroscopy

This study presents the absolute argon 1 s (in Paschens’s notation) densities and the gas temperature, Tg, obtained in a surfatron plasma in the pressure range 0.65 10 mbar, for which the pressure broadening can no more be neglected. Tg is in the range of 480-750 K, increasing with pressure and decreasing with the distance from the microwave launcher. Taking into account the line of sight effects of the absorption measurements, a good agreement is found with our previous measurements by Rayleigh scattering of Tg at the tube center. In the studied pressure range, the Ar(4 s) atom densities are in the order of 1016−1018 m−3, inc...

A power pulsed low-pressure argon microwave plasma investigated by Thomson scattering: evidence for molecular assisted recombination

A squared-wave power pulsed low-pressure plasma is investigated by means of Thomson scattering. By this method the values of the electron density and temperature are obtained, directly. The plasma is created by a surfatron launcher in pure argon at gas pressures of 8–70 mbar. Features of the pulse rise and decay are studied with microsecond time resolution. During the pulse rise we observe initial high temperature values, while the density is still rising. At power switch-off we find decay times of the electron density that are smaller than what is expected on the basis of diffusion losses. This implies that the dominant decay mechanism in the studied pressure regime is provided by molecular assisted recombination.

Determination of electron-impact transfer rate coefficients between argon 1s2 and 1s3 states by laser pump???probe technique

In a microwave argon plasma, the electron-impact population transfers between the first four excited states of argon are studied by time-resolved laser pump?probe technique. Metastable atoms in the 1s5 state (in Paschens notation) are selectively pumped up to the 2p3 state, with a nanosecond pulsed dye laser tuned to the 706?nm argon transition and the temporal response of the densities in the 1s3, 1s4 and 1s5 states are monitored by time-resolved laser diode absorption. The electron density and temperature are also measured by Thomson scattering along the plasma column for different pressures. The rate coefficient measured for the 1s3 to 1s2 state transfer, for which only rough estimations exist in the literature is found to be 9???10?13?m3?s?1, almost five times larger than the value commonly assumed.

Ultra-fast pulsed microwave plasma breakdown: evidence of various ignition modes

In this communication, we investigate the ignition of pulsed microwave plasmas in a narrow dielectric tube with an electrodeless configuration. The plasma is generated using a surfatron cavity. The power is modulated as a square wave with a rise-time of 30ns at variable frequencies from 100Hz up to 5MHz. The ignition and plasma propagation inside the 3mm radius quartz tube are imaged spatially and resolved with nanosecond time resolution using an iCCD camera. The plasma is found to propagate in the form of a front moving from the launcher to the end of the plasma column with the microwave power being gradually absorbed behind it. The velocity of the plasma front decreases while the plasma goes towards a steady state. The ionization front is found to be strongly non-uniform and various structures as a function of the pulse repetition frequency (i.e. power-off time) are shown in the axial and radial directions. At low frequencies, finger-like structures are found. The plasma becomes more hollow at smaller power-off times. At higher repetition frequencies (kHz regime), a critical repetition frequency is found for which the plasma light intensity sharply increases at the head of the propagation front, taking a shape resembling a plasma bullet. This critical frequency depends on the pressure and power. For even higher frequencies, the bullet shape disappears and plasma volume ignition from the launcher to the end of the plasma column is observed. These results bring a new insight into the ignition mechanisms of pulsed microwave plasmas inside dielectric tubes. A wide variety of effects are found which seem to mostly depend on the background ionization degree. Moreover, the results show that only a 3D time-dependent model can, in general, correctly describe the ignition of a pulsed microwave discharge. (Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

Spatio-temporal dynamics of a pulsed microwave argon plasma: ignition and afterglow

In this paper, a detailed investigation of the spatio-temporal dynamics of a pulsed microwave plasma is presented. The plasma is ignited inside a dielectric tube in a repetitively pulsed regime at pressures ranging from 1 up to 100 mbar with pulse repetition frequencies from 200 Hz up to 500 kHz. Various diagnostic techniques are employed to obtain the main plasma parameters both spatially and with high temporal resolution. Thomson scattering is used to obtain the electron density and mean electron energy at fixed positions in the dielectric tube. The temporal evolution of the two resonant and two metastable argon 4s states are measured by laser diode absorption spectroscopy. Nanosecond time-resolved imaging of the discharge allows us to follow the spatio-temporal evolution of the discharge with high temporal and spatial resolution. Finally, the temporal evolution of argon 4p and higher states is measured by optical emission spectroscopy. The combination of these various diagnostics techniques gives deeper insight on the plasma dynamics during pulsed microwave plasma operation from low to high pressure regimes. The effects of the pulse repetition frequency on the plasma ignition dynamics are discussed and the plasma-off time is found to be the relevant parameter for the observed ignition modes. Depending on the delay between two plasma pulses, the dynamics of the ionization front are found to be changing dramatically. This is also reflected in the dynamics of the electron density and temperature and argon line emission from the plasma. On the other hand, the (quasi) steady state properties of the plasma are found to depend only weakly on the pulse repetition frequency and the afterglow kinetics present an uniform spatio-temporal behavior. However, compared to continuous operation, the time-averaged metastable and resonant state 4s densities are found to be significantly larger around a few kHz pulsing frequency.

Global (volume-averaged) model of inductively coupled chlorine plasma : influence of Cl wall recombination and external heating on continuous and pulse-modulated plasmas

An inductively coupled radio-frequency plasma in chlorine is investigated via a global (volume-averaged) model, both in continuous and square wave modulated power input modes. After the power is switched off (in a pulsed mode) an ion–ion plasma appears. In order to model this phenomenon, a novel quasi-neutrality implementation is proposed. Several distinct Cl wall recombination probability measurements exist in the literature, and their effect on the simulation data is compared. We also investigated the effect of the gas temperature that was imposed over the range 300–1500 K, not calculated self-consistently. Comparison with published experimental data from several sources for both continuous and pulsed modes shows good agreement with the simulation results.

Modelling of an RF plasma shower

A capacitive radiofrequency (RF) discharge at atmospheric pressure is studied by means of a time-dependent, two-dimensional fluid model. The plasma is created in a stationary argon gas flow guided through two perforated electrodes, hence resembling a shower. The inner electrode, the electrode facing the flow entrance, is powered with a frequency of 13.56 MHz, and the outer electrode is grounded. The model solves the mass balance equations for the relevant active species and the electron energy balance equation in conjunction with the Poisson equation for the field sustaining the plasma. The mass balance equations of the active species are calculated using the drift–diffusion–convection approach, thus taking the bulk velocity into account. The velocity field is calculated with the Navier–Stokes module of the Plasimo toolkit. The plasma dynamics is studied in three connected regions; the space between the electrodes, the regions before the powered electrode and the extended region behind the grounded electrode. The effect of the shower holes and the recirculation gas flow on the plasma is examined.