Ferroelectrics-induced Surface Charge in Plasma

As more renewable energy enters the market, plasma-assisted manufacturing is one way to utilize electrical power in a turnkey process. Compared to the traditional hightemperature equilibrium process, plasma-assisted methods are pursued as promising techniques for non-equilibrium energy-efficient manufacturing using new reaction pathways. However, there are scientific challenges in simultaneously manipulating plasma discharge and surface reactions directly and efficiently, to enable energy efficient plasma-assisted manufacturing. In this work, we experimentally manipulate plasma properties by creating the surface charge via ferroelectrics materials, lead zirconate titanate. Ferroelectric materials are chosen due to their unique feature of spontaneous polarization, which will generate surface charge to interact with electrons in the plasma. The surface charge is expected to influence the electron properties in the plasma, resulting in changes to plasma performance. The surface charge induced by ferroelectrics materials was measured by Sawyer-Tower method, and the electric field as one key plasma property was measured by electric-fieldinduced second-harmonic generation. This work paves the way for controlling and improving the plasma-assisted chemical manufacturing process, e.g., plasmaassisted catalytic NH3 synthesis.