Dynamics in an Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet

The dynamical regimes of atmospheric pressure plasma jets remain relatively unexplored. While a small number of studies have observed chaotic behavior in jets, very little is known about dynamical transitions in these systems. Better understanding of the possible dynamical regimes will help constrain the large parameter space available for applications. We measure the temporal behavior of the electrode current in a DC-driven, coaxial dielectric barrier jet using argon. Analysis of Poincaré recurrences in a time series provides a quantitative means to classify dynamics and identify transitions in a complex system. We use recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) to explore dynamical variations in the discharge current for a simple jet system.