Fluid model of a single striated filament in an RF plasma jet at atmospheric pressure

The filaments occurring in an RF argon atmospheric-pressure plasma jet are investigated by means of numerical modelling. The special setup of the jet leads to the establishment of filaments in very regular modes under certain conditions. Such a single filament generated in the active volume between the powered and grounded electrode is described by a time-dependent, spatially two-dimensional fluid model. This self-consistent model includes those mechanisms which can lead to constriction and stratification such as the heat balance equation and the dependence of electron collision rate coefficients on the ionization degree. A curved filament with a contracted radial profile of particle densities and very pronounced striations along its trace has been obtained by the model calculation for a typical discharge parameter condition of the plasma jet. The resulting calculated electron density and mean energy in the filament as well as the period length of the striations agree qualitatively with recent experimental observations. The analysis of the ionization budget makes clear that the constriction and stratification is mainly caused by the different nonlinear dependences of ionization and recombination rates on the electron density. (paper)