Radio‐Frequency, Atmospheric‐Pressure Glow Discharges: Producing Methods, Characteristics and Applications in Bio‐Medical Fields

Radio‐frequency (RF), atmospheric‐pressure glow discharge (APGD) plasmas with bare metallic electrodes have shown their promising prospects in different fields. In this paper, based on the induced gas discharge approach, the discharge characteristics of RF, APGD plasmas using helium/oxygen mixture as the plasma working‐gas are presented. The bio‐medical effects of the helium RF APGD plasma jet acting on the gfp DNA and E. coli are also reported. Studies concerning the lethal and sub‐lethal effects of the RF APGDs on the molecular and cell levels, which are related with the characteristics of the plasmas and their operation conditions are necessary in the future work based on a closer cooperation between the researchers in the field of the plasma science & technology and of the bio‐medical science.