Current carrying DC plasmas

The analytical plasmas are classified according to the method of power transmission to the working gas. There are three dominant types of plasma source in use today (i) Inductively coupled plasmas, ICPs (ii) Direct current plasmas, DCPs (current carrying DC plasmas and current-free DC plasmas) (iii) Microwave plasmas (microwave induced plasmas, MIPs, and capacitively coupled microwave plasmas, CMPs). 

A feature common to all these DC plasma sources is the DC arc discharge. The discharge is stabilized in various ways or transferred away from the arc column to produce a flame-like appearance (plasmajet). DC plasmas are divided into two groups (i) current carrying DC plasmas, and (ii) current free DC plasmas or plasmajets. 

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