Experimental Investigation of Low Power Microwave Microplasma Source

The aim of this paper is to present a novel microwave microplasma source generated in di erent gases at atmospheric pressure. The design, rule of operation and experimental investigations of the new microwave microplasma source are described. The main advantage of the presented microwave microplasma source is its small size, simplicity, and low cost of construction and operation. The microplasma has a form of a small plasma jet of dimensions of a few mm, depending on the kind of gas, gas ow rate, and absorbed microwave power. Presented in this paper results of experimental investigations were obtained with an atmospheric pressure argon, krypton, nitrogen, and air microplasma, sustained by microwaves of standard frequency of 2.45 GHz. The absorbed microwave power was up to 70 W. The gas ow rate was from 2 to 25 l/min. The miniature size, simplicity of the source and stability of the microplasma allow to conclude that the presented new microwave microplasma source can nd practical applications in various elds.