Spectroscopic observation of micro plasma jets generated by pulsed power

Atmospheric pressure micro plasma jets have been developed for industrial and medical applications, such as the dental treatment, inner surface treatment of capillaries, stimuli of microorganisms and local cleaning of semiconductor devices. An advantage of atmospheric pressure air micro plasma jets is a capability to irradiate plasma to a narrow area, and also is not to require vacuum devices with the ultra-portable and miniaturized size. In this paper, the pulsed power generated micro plasma jets are compared with the DC generated micro plasma jets in gases of air, N₂ and O₂. Especially, the spectroscopic observation of micro plasma jets is reported comparing two kinds of plasma jets. In the case using the DC power supply, the N₂ second positive band, the N₂ first positive band, the O radical peak at 777 nm, and NO band of ~300 nm are observed. In the case using the pulsed power source, lines of wavelength between 400 and 600 nm were observed.