An atmospheric‐pressure microplasma array produced by using graphite coating electrodes

In this work, a novel non-thermal atmospheric-pressure microplasma array (APMPA) has been characterized. The APMPA employs 16 parallel capillaries with an inner diameter of 200 µm and arranged in a square configuration. Our measurements show that the stable plasma plumes can be generated by the APMPA and then spread along the dielectric surface. Both the power in the plasma source region and the one transferred onto the dielectric surface are calculated by plotting Lissajous figures. The power strongly depends on the applied voltage, frequency, and the distance between the nozzles and the dielectric surface. In addition, the temperature of N2 molecules in APMPA plasmas is calculated by using optical emission spectroscopy. The temporally resolved images of the APMPA plasmas show that the total emission intensities for the case of positive half-period is much higher than that of negative half-period. In order to describe the performance of the APMPA, the optical emission of the APMPA is compared with a single tube plasma jet with the same configuration and cross section area, and the result illustrates the APMPA can provide a higher density plasma and larger treatment area which may have a beneficial effect on various applications.