A novel antenna for sub-atmospheric radio-frequency discharge

A novel antenna that can generate plasma efficiently for pressure up to thousands of Pascal with 1 kW-13.56 MHz radio-frequency power supply is reported. It consists of two isolated solenoids so that involves both capacitively coupling and inductively coupling effects, together with magnetic mirror effect which confines the formed plasma axially to a certain extent. Experiments show that the novel discharge has directional preference depending on the applied voltage, a character of dielectric barrier discharge, and can run steadily for tens of hours without severe thermal load. Simulations using COMSOL Multiphysics reveal consistent variations of electron temperature and electron density with base pressure, input power, separation distance of isolated solenoids, and the number of turns of each solenoid. This ionization method is of great interest for plasma processing and propulsion in sub-atmospheric environment.