Temporal gas temperature of atmospheric pressure air plasma

Abstract In this paper, temporal gas temperature in plasma was measured by Rayleigh scattering in a passive way since synchronization was difficult due to the randomness of current pulses. The plasma was generated between a 10 mm pin-to-plane gap connected to a H.V DC voltage through a 130 MΩ resistor and a skin sample was placed on a grounded plate. Even the plasma can be touched by a human hand without any feeling of warmth, the peak temperature could be 337 K then decrease to 295 K over 60 μs at 1 mm. Moreover, the applied voltage dramatically affects peak current and the peak temperature. Therefore, the transient “high” temperature cannot be touched and the so-called “cold” plasma might not be “cold”.