Ultra-short, repetitively pulsed atmospheric-pressure microplasmas

Low‐temperature atmospheric‐pressure plasmas are of great importance in many emerging biomedical and materials processing applications; in recent years there has been a growing interest in short‐pulsed excitation of such plasmas as a gateway to access highly non‐equilibrium discharge chemistry. This contribution employs time‐resolved electrical and optical diagnostics in combination with a time‐hybrid computational model to uncover the physics behind repetitive short pulsed excitation of atmospheric pressure plasma. It is shown that during the applied voltage pulse the peak dissipated power can exceed 1GW/cm3 resulting in electron densities approaching 1017 cm‐3 (~6 orders of magnitude larger than conventional low‐temperature atmospheric discharges) while the gas temperature remains close to room temperature.