Impact of electrical grounding conditions on plasma–liquid interactions using Thomson scattering on a pulsed argon jet

Abstract The interaction between an argon plasma jet excited using microsecond duration voltage pulses and a liquid target was examined using Thomson scattering to quantify the temporal evolution of the electron density and temperature. The electrical resistance between a liquid target and the electrical ground was varied from 1 to $$680\, \text {k}\Omega $$ 680 k Ω to mimic different conductivity liquids while the influence of the varying electrical properties on the electron dynamics within the plasma were examined. It was demonstrated that the interaction between the plasma jet and a liquid target grounded via a high resistance resulted in typical dielectric barrier discharge behaviour, with two discharge events per applied voltage pulse. Under such conditions, the electron density and temperature reached a peak of $$1\cdot 10^{15}\, \text {cm}^{-3}$$ 1 · 10 15 cm - 3 and 3.4 eV, respectively; with both rapidly decaying over several hundreds of nanoseconds. For liquid targets grounded via a low resistance, the jet behaviour transitioned to a DC-like discharge, with a single breakdown event being observed and sustained throughout the duration of each applied voltage pulse. Under such conditions, electron densities of $$2{-}3 \cdot 10^{15}\, \text {cm}^{-3}$$ 2 - 3 · 10 15 cm - 3 were detected for several microseconds. The results demonstrate that the electron dynamics in a pulsed argon plasma jet are extremely sensitive to the electrical characteristics of the target, which in the case of water, can evolve during exposure to the plasma.