Research facility for biological/environmental applications of cold plasmas

Summary form only given, as follows. We have built a research facility designed to accommodate various investigations in the physics and applications of large volume, non-thermal plasmas. This facility is capable of generating cold plasmas ignited by DC, AC, and RF power sources. Electrode designs aimed at experimenting with DBD-based, RBD-based, and bare parallel plate discharges are built. The operating pressure in the experimental chamber can be varied from low pressure (/spl mu/Torr) to atmospheric pressure. The facility is equipped with diagnostics, which include current-voltage measurement with a wide band (1 GHz) digital oscilloscope, emission spectroscopy using an imaging spectrograph, and residual gas analysis using a quadrupole mass spectrometer capable of operating at pressures up to one atmosphere. One of the applications that is of particular interest is the biological decontamination by non-thermal plasmas. Our facility permits us to test the effect of plasmas on microorganisms introduced in the discharge chamber in a mist-like form or seeded on various surfaces. Description of our experimental setups and discussion of some interesting results regarding both the discharges and their biological/environmental applications will be presented.