A long atmospheric pressure cold plasma plume for biomedical applications

This paper reports on a special designed room temperature plasma jet device. The device, which can be driven by an AC or pulsed DC power supply, is capable of generating a helium plasma plume up to 11 cm long in the surrounding air. The safety of the device is evaluated by a simple electrical model. The device can be hand held and the plasma plume can be directed to any object to be treated. The rotational and vibrational temperatures of the plasma plume are measured to be about 300 K and 2300 K, respectively. The I-V characteristics of the plasma are discussed. The emission behavior of the plasma plume is studied. The absolute concentrations of several active species are measured and the effect of the plasma plume on bacterial are investigated.