Plasma
Plasma
2. When the ionization degree is low, the plasma is called weakly ionized plasma.
Thermal plasma:
The temperature difference between electrons and heavy particles are due to joule heating in the
collisional weakly ionized plasma is proportional to the square of the ratio of the electric field to
the pressure. Thus, this is the basic requirement for local thermodynamic equilibrium in plasma.
Non-thermal plasma:
It is the electron temperature that often significantly exceeds that of heavy particles. They are
usually generated at low pressure, lower power levels or in different kinds of discharge systems.
Microplasma:
Characteristics of Microplasma:
In microplasma, it becomes possible to make the residence time of source gas very short from 1
ms to 1µs, in a moderate gas flow rate. They can be operated in a pulsed mode and its duration is
shorter than the electron energy relaxation time which makes the electron temperature is much
higher than the gas temperature. The micro scale provides additional freedom in the usage, (ie:)a
microplasma can be used in a single unit or a group of microplasma by constructing an array.
Plasma has reactive, radiative, conductive and dielectric properties inherently. With these
properties and the choice of usage which leads to various application by microplasma.
Generation of Microplasma:
There are many ways to create microplasma of micro scale. We can classify the methods on the
basis of the frequency of the power source.
HOLLOW CATHODE DISCHARGE:
In DC operation, the most popular design is the hollow cathode type. It is just a simple metal-
insulator-metal sandwiched structure with a through-hole of a few tens to hundreds micrometers
in diameter. Even with this structure it was possible to make the electric field lines bend
coaxially into the cathode hole. Thus, it allowed electrons to perform a pendulum motion in the
cathode area for increasing the ionization speed, called hollow cathode effect.
In dielectric barrier