Simple model for atmospheric microplasma sheath

摘要

A simple model for the near-wall sheath in an atmospheric pressure microplasma is developed to understand the sheath behavior and particle impact energies. A microplasma is millimeter or submilimeter dimension plasma that can operate stably, without arcing, at high pressures. Envisioned applications for microplasma include material processing, biomedical, spectroscopy, and propulsion. The small scale nature of microplasma creates properties and behaviors not typically seen in low-pressure plasmas. This simple model is the beginning of an effort to model and understand the spatial variation of the plasma properties in microplasma in order to enable future applications.