Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas in Resonant Circuits

This paper attempts to give a short overview of atmospheric pressure plasmas generated in very non-uniform radiofrequency electric fields. All these forms of gas discharges have a common characteristic: they are generated based on the possibility to obtain very high voltages in resonant series RLC circuits. The paper presents both the radiofrequency generators designed in this aim and some applications of generated plasmas, especially as spectral source for analyzing of liquid and solid samples and as bacterial deactivation agent. Thus, this paper is meant for both laboratory plasma generators designers and plasma spectroscopists.