About Atmospheric Plasma - A Primer

What is plasma?

Put simply, plasma is the fourth state of matter, higher in energy than solid, liquid, and gas. Just as adding enough energy to water results in steam, adding enough energy to gas results in plasma. In other words, plasma is ionized gas, meaning the formerly-bound electrons have enough energy to separate from the nuclei. While the significance of this process may not be immediately obvious, it is this same phenomenon that turns such mundane gases as hydrogen and helium into the magnificent globe of plasma known as the Sun.

In fact, throughout the universe, plasma is far more common than the three lower-energy states that are so familiar to us. But plasma is much harder to come by here on Earth. While there are some everyday examples of plasma, such as neon and fluorescent lights, most involve a sealed container with a specialized composition of gas at low pressure. One exception is provided by lightning, a natural form of Atmospheric Plasma.

What is Atmospheric Plasma?

While lightning is literally plasma created from the air in the atmosphere, the term Atmospheric Plasma encompasses any plasma generated at standard atmospheric pressures, rather than within the confines of a vacuum. And while many forms of energy may be used to create the plasma, one of the most useful and versatile methods is to electrically excite a gas, in much the same way a lightning bolt is formed. Unlike lightning, however, a controlled Atmospheric Plasma discharge can be manipulated into an endless variety of forms by varying the energy, geometry, and source gases used.

So, in a very real sense, an Atmospheric Plasma System enables the user to create and control one of the most fundamental forces of nature, requiring nothing more exotic than an electrical outlet and the air that we breathe. Although some applications have considerably more complex requirements, at its bare minimum, the technology can be used virtually anywhere. It is this versatility that has allowed AP Solutions to bring the benefits of Plasma Technology to a plethora of new, exciting, and often unexpected fields.

Now that you better understand Atmospheric Plasma, please visit our Applications page to see the various Solutions we can provide.