Role of metastable atoms in the propagation of atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge jets

In the experiment of plasma jets generated in a tube dielectric barrier discharge configuration, three distinguishable modes, namely, laminar, transition, and turbulent jet modes, have been identified. Flows of helium, neon, and argon gases shared the hydrodynamic law when their plasma jets spraying into ambient air of atmospheric pressure and room temperature. Aiming to reveal the basic processes, we propose that plasma jet length is mainly determined by reactions involving metastable atoms. These processes are responsible for the variation in plasma jet length versus gas flow rate and working gas species. To investigate this proposal in detail, we have obtained three significant experimental results, i.e., (1) the plasma jet lengths of helium, neon, and argon are different; (2) the plasma jet length of krypton slightly changes with gas flow rate, with three modes indistinguishable; and (3) there are large differences between optical emission spectra of helium, neon, argon, and krypton flow gases. These observations are in good agreement with our proposal.