The development of an advanced ion-extraction device

This project will be focussed on the development of an advanced ion-extraction device. The main aim will be to study the fundamentals of low-temperature plasmas so that the properties of the plasma can be taken advantage of to produce the charge separation that is the core aim of the project. It will be using current experimental techniques to generate non-equilibrium, low-temperature plasmas to investigate new innovative methods of achieving ion-extraction.
My current work involves generating a non-equilibrium, low-temperature plasma to convert carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide. The aim is to build an experiment with a reduced electrode-electrode distance so that we move down the Paschen curve to increase the energy and conversion efficiency. Also by using an increased frequency, i.e. one of the higher harmonics of 13.56MHz, we can utilise the energy of the electrons to increase the amount of alpha mode ionisation events, thus increasing the stability and conversion of carbon dioxide.