• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.103-107
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• 2019

Low-temperature plasma (LTP) ionization is one of the ambient ionization methods typically used in mass spectrometry (MS) for fast screening of chemicals with minimal or no sample preparation. In spite of various advantages of LTP ionization method, including simple instrumentation and in-situ analysis, more general applications of the method are limited due to poor desorption of analytes with low volatilities and low ionization efficiencies in the negative ion mode. In order to overcome these limitations, an ultrasonic vibrator of a commercial hand-held humidifier was interfaced with an LTP ionization source, which generated microdroplets from sample solutions and assisted with LTP ionization. Ionization behaviors of various chemicals in microdroplet-assisted LTP (MA LTP) were tested and compared with typical LTP ionization from dried samples applied on a surface. MA LTP efficiently ionized small organic, amino, and fatty acids with low volatilities and high polarities, which were hardly ionized using the standard LTP method. Facile interaction of LTP with ultrafine droplets generated by ultrasonic resonator allows efficient ionization of relatively non-volatile and polar analytes both in the positive and negative ion modes.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.44-47
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• 2017

Isothiazolinone derivatives are widely used in consumer products as disinfectants or preservatives, but there are growing concerns about their impact on human health. Therefore, rapid screening of these biocides is very important for proper control and regulation of potentially hazardous substances. To this end, low-temperature plasma (LTP) ionization mass spectrometry (MS) was investigated to demonstrate its potential for direct and selective analysis of isothiazolinones from sprayed aerosol samples. Benzisothiazolinone (BIT) was clearly identified from a commercial fabric deodorant using LTP ionization MS and MS/MS. LTP allowed selective ionization of BIT directly from the simply sprayed aerosol sample and illustrated its potential for fast screening without sample pre-treatments. Selective nature of LTP ionization, on the other hands, implicates use of LTP ionization MS as a general screening method for specific groups of hazardous chemicals in commercial products.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.71-74
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• 2015

Low temperature plasma (LTP) ionization mass spectrometry (MS) is one of the widely used ambient analysis methods which allows soft-ionization and rapid analysis of samples in ambient condition with minimal or no sample preparation. One of the major advantages of LTP MS is selective analysis of low-molecular weight, volatile and low- to medium-polarity analytes in a sample. On the contrary, the selectivity for particular class of compound also implies its limitation in general analysis. One of the critical factors limiting LTP ionization efficiency is poor desorption of analytes with low volatility. In this study, a home-built LTP ionization source with Peltier heating sample stage was constructed to enhance desorption and ionization efficiencies of analytes in a sample and its performance was evaluated using standard mixture containing fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs). It was also used to reproduce the previous bacterial identification experiment using pattern-recognition for FAEEs. Our result indicates, however, that the bacterial differentiation from FAEE pattern recognition using LTP ionization MS still has many limitations.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.53.1-53.1
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• 2019

We apply a non-equilibrium ionization (NEI) model to a supra-arcade plasma sheet, shocked plasma, and current sheet. The model assumes that the plasma is initially in ionization equilibrium at low temperature, and it is heated rapidly by a shock or magnetic reconnection. The model presents the temperature and characteristic timescale responses of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board Solar Dynamic Observatory and X-ray Telescope (XRT) on board Hinode. We compare the model ratios of the responses between different passbands with the observed ratios of a supra-arcade plasma sheet on 2012 January 27. We find that most of observations are able to be described by using a combination of temperatures in equilibrium and the plasma closer to the arcade may be close to equilibrium ionization. We also utilize the set of responses to estimate the temperature and density for shocked plasma associated with a coronal mass ejection on 2010 June 13. The temperature, density, and the line of sight depth ranges we obtain are in reasonable agreement with previous works. However, a detailed model of the spherical shock is needed to fit the observations. We also compare the model ratios with the observations of a current sheet feature on 2017 September 10. The long extended current sheet above the solar limb makes it easy to analyze the sheet without background corona. We find that the sheet feature is far from equilibrium ionization while the background plasma is close to equilibrium. We discuss our results with the previous studies assuming equilibrium ionization.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.557-557
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• 2013

Plasma hardly grows in lowpressure because of lack of collision. But low pressure plasma has useful properties because it has typically low electron density. In here, thermal electron is used to make breakdown in low pressure easily. We changed magnetic field strength and gas to control electron density or temperature. IV characteristic and electron density of the discharge are examined and the characteristic of the discharge in presence of magnetic field is also examined. Results showed that depending on the ionization cross section of the gas, electron density is changed and proper strength of magnetic field is required for high electron density.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.61 no.12
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• pp.1880-1885
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• 2012

Nonlinear dynamical behaviors in thermionic low pressure discharge are investigated using a particle-in-cell(PIC) simulation. An electrostatic PIC code is developed to model the plasma discharge system including the kinetic effects. The elastic collision, excitation collision, ionization collision, and electron-ion recombination collision are considered in this code. The generated electrons and ions are traced to analyze physical characteristics of the plasma. The simulation results show that the nonlinear oscillation structures are observed for cold plasma in the system and the similar structures are observed for warm plasma with a shift in values of the bifurcation parameter. The detailed oscillation process can be subdivided into three distinct mode; anode-glow, temperature-limited, and double-layer modes.

• Journal of the Speleological Society of Korea
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• no.76
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• pp.37-42
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• 2006

The Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) is a nonequilibrium gas discharge that is generated in the space between two electrodes, which are separated by an insulating dielectric layer. The dielectric layer can be put on either of the two electrodes or be inserted in the space between two electrodes. If an AC or pulse high voltage is applied to the electrodes that is operated at applied frequency from 50Hz to several MHz and applied voltages from a few to a few tens of kilovolts rms, the breakdown can occur in working gas, resulting in large numbers of micro-discharges across the gap, the gas discharge is the so called DBD. Compared with most other means for nonequilibrium discharges, the main advantage of the DBD is that active species for chemical reaction can be produced at low temperature and atmospheric pressure without the vacuum set up, it also presents many unique physical and chemical process including light, heat, sound and electricity. This has led to a number of important applications such as ozone synthesizing, UV lamp house, CO2 lasers, et al. In recent years, due to its potential applications in plasma chemistry, semiconductor etching, pollution control, nanometer material and large area flat plasma display panels, DBD has received intensive attention from many researchers and is becoming a hot topic in the field of non-thermal plasma.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2005.08a
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• pp.155-155
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• 2005

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.17-20
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• 2015

The physical effects of H-plasma treatment on ZnO thin film have been studied using photoluminescence(PL) spectroscopy. Four characteristic peaks have been identified: (i) $D^0X$ peak (neutral donor-bound exciton), showing relatively small integrated intensity after H-plasma treatment, indicates that H-plasma passivates the neutral donors in ZnO at low temperatures. The rapid decrease in the integrated intensity of the peak as the temperature goes up is considered to be due to the ionization of neutral donors. (ii) H-related complex-bound exciton peak appears at the low temperatures (10 K~80 K) after H-plasma treatment, showing the same thermal evolution as $D^0X$ peak. (iii) FX (free exciton) peak starts to show up at 60 K and grows more and more as the temperature goes up, which is considered to be related to the increase in free electron concentration in the film. (iv) violet band is intensified after H-plasma, which means more defects and impurities are generated by H-plasma process.

• KIEE International Transactions on Electrophysics and Applications
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• v.2C no.5
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• pp.246-252
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• 2002

Two-dimensional steady state simulations of planar type radio frequency inductively coupled plasma (RFICP) have been performed. The characteristics of RFICP were investigated in terms of power transfer efficiency, equivalent circuit analysis, spatial distribution of plasma density and electron temperature. Plasma density and electron temperature were determined from the equations of ambipolar diffusion and energy conservation. Joule heating, ionization, excitation and elastic collision loss were included as the source terms of the electron energy equation. The electromagnetic field was calculated from the vector potential formulation of ampere's law. The peak electron temperature decreases from about 4eV to 2eV as pressure increases from 5 mTorr to 100 mTorr. The peak density increases with increasing pressure. Electron temperatures at the center of the chamber are almost independent of input power and electron densities linearly increase with power level. The results agree well with theoretical analysis and experimental results. A single turn, edge feeding antenna configuration shows better density uniformity than a four-turn antenna system at relatively low pressure conditions. The thickness of the dielectric window should be minimized to reduce power loss. The equivalent resistance of the system increases with both power and pressure, which reflects the improvement of power transfer efficiency.