Detection of atmospheric pressure plasma-induced removal of fingerprints via analysis of histograms obtained by imaging ellipsometry

Abstract

In this publication we report on the suitability of imaging ellipsometry for the semi-quantitative investigation of a contactless removal of human fingerprints from surfaces by an atmospheric pressure plasma tretament. Special attention is paid to the impact of the applied plasma on the complex mixture of biological substances of a fingerprint. For this purpose, the cleaning effect of an argon plasma at two different electrical powers is investigated. By using imaging ellipsometry as a analysis method it could be shown that the cleaning efficiency increases with increasing electrical power and plasma treatment time. In addition, measurements were made by means of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) in order to characterize the chemical composition of surface-adherent contamination and its plasma-induced modifications. It was found that especially the amount of organic impurities is reduced in the course of plasma treatment.

Applications of atmospheric cold plasma in agricultural, medical, and bioprocessing industries

“…Conclusively, these studies illustrate that the active species generated from ACP possess a surface etching ability which can be useful in cleaning and coating. In fact, one study also integrated ACP with ellipsometry to help remove human fingerprints from a surface, successfully performing contactless fingerprint detection by transferring the impurity into the gas phase (Koulouris et al 2021 ). Regardless, additional research is mandatory to thoroughly evaluate its exact mechanism particularly on the physicochemical interactions between the materials’ surface and active species.…”