A two-temperature model for a microwave generated argon plasma jet at atmospheric pressure

A two-temperature plasma model (electrons having a temperature T, and ions and gas atoms having a temperature T-h) together with relevant Maxwell's equations is used to simulate a microwave generated argon plasma jet at atmospheric pressure operating at 896 MHz and 2.45 GHz. Electromagnetic field propagating along the active zone feeds the energy into the plasma. A large proportion of the energy gained by electrons from the field is used to excite argon atoms and ions. Outside the active zone, power input is negligible and electrons and heavy particles rapidly attain a single temperature. Typical self-consistent computational results with representative values of microwave source power and flow rate are given and compared with the spectroscopic measurements of Yan et al.