Aims

The course focuses on plasma applications. The course aims at teaching the general ideas and experimental tecniques for the characterization of electrical discharges in gas mixtures and their use in material processing.

Contents

• Plasmas produced in electrical discharges in gases.
• Low pressure cold plasmas.
• Radiofrequency plasmas.
• Cold plasmas at atmospheric pressure.
• Plasma diagnostics.
• Plasma processing for material treatments.
• Atomic Force Microscopy.

Detailed program

• The laboratory starts with an introduction on electrical discharges in gases,
• on elementary processes in plasmas and on plasma processing  of materials. 
• Experiments will be realized in small groups concerning, partially at student will, according to the available instrumentations and the number of students:

1. Characterization of a glow discharge
2. Characterization of a plasma produced by a radiofrequency antenna
3. Characterization of a DBD, Dielectric Barrier Discharge
4. Characterization of plasma-material interactions also with atomic force microscopy. 

Semester

First year, Master degree, second semester