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Among the large number of new ambient ionization schemes in the last few years, dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) has witnessed special attention. In this contribution a versatile dual mode DBD is introduced and characterized by means of optical emission spectroscopy and time-of-flight mass spectrometry. A direct comparison of the individual results from spectroscopy, spectrometry and transient current/voltage consumption gives evidence for the existence of two individual operational mechanisms. The first is driven by rapid transient changes in the potential difference between the two electrodes over time (usually denoted as the homogeneous mode), while the second is caused at high static potential differences (leading to filamentary discharges). The transient versus steady-state characteristics of the individual discharge origin suggest the driving force for the current flow to be inductive and capacitive, respectively. In most cases of dielectric barrier plasmas both discharge types coexist as competitive ion formation channels, however, detailed plasma characteristics of DBDs operated under different conditions allow for a clear distinction of the individual contributions. In this way, two characteristic product channels for the ionization of ambient water could be observed resulting in the generation of either preferentially protonated water clusters or ammonium water clusters. Careful tuning of the operation parameters of the discharge device allows an operation predominated by either of the two modes. As a consequence, facile switching into the desired operational mode results in either protonated molecules or ammoniated molecules of the analyte. Plasma characteristics for both moieties were evaluated and cross-correlated on the basis of several factors including: the production of reagent ions, the individual appearance of current/voltage profiles, UV/Vis spectroscopy, voltage and flux dependence and the individual response to test compounds. Although the filamentary mode has been already discussed in the literature to induce fragmentation processes, no experimental evidence for analyte dissociation could be found in the case of the test compounds used
Raman spectroscopy is becoming a commonly used, powerful tool for structural elucidation and species identification of small liquid samples, e.g. in droplet-based digital microfluidic devices. Due to the low scattering cross sections and the temporal restrictions dictated by the droplet flow, however, it depends on amplification strategies which often come at a cost. In the case of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), this can be an enhanced susceptibility towards memory effects and cross talk, whereas resonant and/or stimulated Raman techniques require higher instrumental sophistication, such as tunable lasers or the high electromagnetic field strengths which are typically provided by femtosecond lasers. Here, an alternative instrumental approach is discussed, in which stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is achieved using the single fixed wavelength output of an inexpensive diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) nanosecond laser. The required field strengths are realized by an effective light trapping in a resonator mode inside the interrogated droplets, while the resonant light required for the stimulation is provided by the fluorescence signal of an admixed laser dye. To elucidate the underlying optical processes, proof-of-concept experiments are conducted on acoustically levitated droplets, mimicking a highly reproducible and stable digital fluidic system. By using isotope-labeled compounds, the assignment of the emitted radiation as Raman scattering is firmly corroborated. A direct comparison reveals an amplification of the usually weak spontaneous Stokes emission by up to five orders of magnitude. Further investigation of the optical power dependence reveals the resulting gain to depend on the intensity of both, the input laser fluence and the concentration of the admixed fluorophore, leaving SRS as the only feasible amplification mechanism. While in this study stable large droplets have been studied, the underlying principles also hold true for smaller droplets, in which case significantly lower laser pulse energy is required. Since DPSS lasers are readily available with high repetition rates, the presented detection strategy bears a huge potential for fast online identification and characterization routines in digital microfluidic devices.