Plasma physics
There are many types of plasma that are researched for their applications in medicine; they have in common that they can all be categorized as cold atmospheric pressure plasmas (CAPs) that do not deliver significant current to the treated surface (dielectric, culture, biofilm, tissue).
Plasma jet, photo: Bart van Overbeeke
We focus on all aspects of CAPs, from fundamental to application-specific properties. In order to understand the biomedical part of the research, extensive number of diagnostics is applied to CAPs to obtain information about virtually all plasma constituents which can potentially affect directly or indirectly living tissue. This includes produced chemical species, UV radiation, electric fields, ions and electrons. This experimental research will also yield basic physical insights in the rather exotic operating mechanisms of cold atmospheric pressure plasmas and is complemented by ongoing numerical modelling efforts.
The main participating researcher in the plasma physics project is Ana Sobota