• • Patent Document 1: JP-A-2010-009890

The plasma generator 200, which is disclosed in Patent Document 1, attempts to generate plasma P approximately uniformly over the entire opposing region 202 by generating turbulence. However, in this method in which such a configuration of electrodes generates plasma over the entire opposing region 202, the plasma blown out of the blowout outlet is not sufficiently uniform. For example, the plasma generated at a position far from the blowout outlet of the opposing region 202 disappears while traveling to the blowout outlet. Hence, the plasma fails to uniformly jet from the entire region of the blowout outlet. In addition, the lifetime of the active species that has been generated in the plasma is short, thus the plasma generated at a position far from the blowout outlet of the opposing region 202, i.e., far from the object to be treated, disappears while traveling to the blowout outlet, preventing plasma from jetting efficiently.

The present invention was made in view of the above-described problems. It is an object of the present invention to provide a dielectric barrier plasma generator capable of efficiently generating plasma in the vicinity of a blowout outlet and uniformly ejecting plasma from the entire region of the blowout outlet. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a plasma discharge starting method in the dielectric barrier plasma generator.