Morphable surface DBDs for compact and adaptive plasma actuation

Mechanically adaptive plasma systems that retain functionality under extreme deformation are essential for emerging applications in wearables, soft robotics, and space exploration. However, conventional dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) platforms are typically rigid or semi-flexible, limiting their deployability and integration. Here we introduce a stretchable, foldable, and morphable (M-DBD) plasma device with liquid metal electrodes on soft elastomeric substrates. The M-DBD maintains stable atmospheric plasma discharge under large mechanical deformation—including biaxial stretching, crumpling, and origami-inspired multidirectional folding—and exhibits long-term durability with or without encapsulation. It can be compactly folded for storage and conformally deployed on demand, enabling use in space-limited environments. Notably, its dissipated power scales predictably with strain due to deformation-induced capacitance modulation, allowing strain-controlled tuning of plasma intensity and ionic wind. This lightweight, reconfigurable platform opens new opportunities for deployable plasma shielding, in-situ sterilization, and micropropulsion in both terrestrial and extraterrestrial applications.