ε (eV)

CHAPTER 2
EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP AND
TECHNIQUES USED IN PLASMA
2.1 Introduction
STERILIZATION
The experiments described in the present thesis have been conducted on an
inductively coupled plasma (ICP) device constructed in the laboratory of Electri-
cal and Electronic Engineering, at Saga University [70-75]. Basically, it consists
of discharge chamber with an internal single loop antenna to which the RF power
is coupled. The device is similar with other ICP with internal antenna described
someplace else [97]. The whole system permits to produce plasmas with prop-
erties comparable with ones that are used for surface processing and allow the
comparison of the results with those found by other research groups [17, 18, 57].
In this chapter, the RF ICP device and techniques used in plasma sterilization
are described. The section 2.2 concerns about the experimental set-up used for
plasma treatments. Microbiological diagnostics used to investigate the dynamics
of the microorganisms population is covered by both theoretical and experimental
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