Strong Coulomb coupling influences ion and neutral temperatures in atmospheric pressure plasmas

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to model ion and neutral temperature evolution in partially-ionized atmospheric pressure plasma at different ionization fractions. Results show that ion–ion interactions are strongly coupled at ionization fractions as low as 10 −5 and that the temperature evolution is influenced by effects associated with the strong coupling. Specifically, disorder-induced heating is found to rapidly heat ions on a timescale of the ion plasma period (∼10 s ps) after an ionization pulse. This is followed by the collisional relaxation of ions and neutrals, which cools ions and heats neutrals on a longer (∼ns) timescale. Slight heating then occurs over a much longer (∼100 s ns) timescale due to ion-neutral three-body recombination. An analytic model of the temperature evolution is developed that agrees with the simulation results. A conclusion is that strong coupling effects are important in atmospheric pressure plasmas.