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This article presents a comparison between the results obtained at the application of a conservation treatment in cold high-frequency (HF) and afterglow plasma on historical papers dating in the 19th century. This article is focused on plasma biocide effects and on the impact of active species from the two types of plasma on the surface, highlighted by mechanical and physical–chemical analyses. The working gas was nitrogen and the treatment time was varied from 5 to 10 and 15 min. The result of physical–chemical analyses as SEM, pH determination, color, and tensile strength analyses, as well as microbiological investigations, converges to the conclusion that a treatment of 10 min achieves a complete decontamination, and the impact of active species is less intense in the afterglow plasma as compared to the direct discharge in cold HF plasma.

Deposition of transparent oxide films at atmosphere pressure onto polymeric substrates at room temperature is a technique gaining rapid acceptance. These films can be used for numerous applications such as antiscratch and water permeation barrier coatings. In this paper, a $\sim 1.4$ - $\mu \text{m}$ SiO x layer has been deposited on polypropylene-coated paper at atmosphere pressure with a filamentary dielectric barrier discharge (DBD). The DBD linear discharge was driven by a 30-kHz power supply. Scanning electron microscope, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used to characterize the deposited film. The deposited thin film decreased water permeation through the paper by $\sim 15$ %.

This paper reports on the behavior of red and black ink from a historical printed book, subjected to a plasma discharge treatment, applied for the decontamination and cleaning of naturally aged paper. As some preliminary experiments using high-frequency (HF) plasma showed a slight fading of red ink, the study was focused on the comparison of HF cold plasma and afterglow plasma treatments in order to get conclusive information on the effect of plasma active species on the red ink. Energy Dispersive X-ray Scanning Electron Microscopy SEM-EDX and Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy FTIR-ATR analyses were used for the identification of inks and binder, while the impact of plasma on inks was assessed by SEM analysis and color determinations. The experiments have been performed on an especially designed modular equipment, allowing the samples to be subjected alternately to HF cold plasma or afterglow plasma treatment. The study proved that direct HF plasma could result in a more important deterioration at treatment duration exceeding 5 min, while in afterglow plasma, this discoloration is not observable. The color fading is imputable to the corrosion of pigment crystallites produced by direct plasma discharge.

Recent studies have found that the surface flashover strength of oil-impregnated insulation paper can be improved by the modification of nanoparticles. To reveal the working mechanism, this paper presents an experimental study on the effects of TiO2 nanoparticles on streamer propagation process at the surface of oil-based nanofluid-impregnated insulation paper under lightning impulse voltage. The results show that the surface flashover voltage of nanofluid-impregnated insulation paper is significantly increased by 34.6%. Streamer characteristics including shape and length at the surface of oil-impregnated insulation paper were investigated using the schlieren technique. It is indicated that streamer characteristics are dramatically changed by the addition of TiO2 nanoparticles. For nanofluid-impregnated insulation paper, streamers with more but much shorter branches tend to develop into adjacent nanofluid rather than clinging to the paper compared to that for pure oil-impregnated paper. The reason responsible for the shape dissimilarity lies in the change of electrical force due to the permittivity difference between oil and paper. Furthermore, more shallow traps introduced by nanoparticles contribute to the faster surface charge dissipation of nanofluid-impregnated paper, reducing the charge accumulation at the streamer head and suppressing the electric field distortion. Thus, it is hard for streamers to develop at the surface of nanofluid-impregnated paper, resulting in an increase of surface flashover strength.

The IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS) is held annually, sponsored by the Plasma Science and Applications Committee (PSAC) of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science Society (NPSS). The 47th IEEE NPSS ICOPS was organized ONLINE from December 06 to 10, 2020, by the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The ICOPS2020 was co-organized together with the 2nd Asia-Pacific Conference on Plasma and Terahertz Science (APCOPTS) which is envisioned as the future Asian version of the ICOPS series of conferences. The ICOPS2020 was initially planned as an onsite physical conference from May 24 to 28, 2020, at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was shifted to online virtual conference. The conference’s technical program included a wide range of plasma science and technology topics, which ranged from basic and fundamental research to traditional and emerging technology applications. Since the ICOPS2020 was co-organized with APCOPTS, it also had a very strong coverage of fields related to terahertz science and applications. A total of 627 presentations from scientists and participants from over 41 countries were made at ICOPS2020 with a record total registration of 754. All presentations were recorded and were available to the registered participants for 90 days after the conference was over. The program also included a women-in-engineering talk by Jackie Y. Ying from A* Star Singapore and a young professionals networking symposium on “Plasma Entrepreneurship” with the theme “Plasma entrepreneurship—Active translation of cutting-edge research to commercially viable product.”

The objectives of this tutorial are as follows: 1) to help students and researchers develop a basic understanding of how pulsed-power systems are used to create high-energy-density (HED) matter; 2) to develop a basic understanding of a new, compact, and efficient pulsed-power technology called linear transformer drivers (LTDs); 3) to understand why LTDs are an attractive technology for driving HED physics (HEDP) experiments; 4) to contrast LTDs with the more traditional Marxgenerator/ pulse-forming-line approach to driving HEDP experiments; and 5) to briefly review the history of LTD technology as well as some of the LTD-driven HEDP research presently underway at universities and research laboratories across the globe. This invited tutorial is part of the Mini-Course on Charged Particle Beams and High-Powered Pulsed Sources, held in conjunction with the 44th International Conference on Plasma Science in May of 2017.

This paper presents a radio frequency plasma equipment designed to be used for the conservation procedures, such as decontamination, cleaning, and consolidation of cellulose-based materials. Decontamination and cleaning are carried out by the low-temperature nitrogen plasma generated between two electrodes, connected to a 1.5-MHz generator. The paper consolidation is performed by coating with compatible polymers in view of long term protection. Surface analyses (color analysis and electron microscopy) were undertaken to assess the uniform display of the polymer on the paper surface. The microbiological tests made on representative samples collected from historical books attested the complete inhibition of bacteria and fungi after, at most, 7-min treatment duration, depending on the initial infestation degree.

With this Special Issue, we are publishing 81 peer-reviewed manuscripts, a selection from the best work presented in June 2019 at the 28th IEEE Symposium on Fusion Engineering (SOFE), Jacksonville, FL, USA. This is the sixth SOFE Special Issue that IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE (TPS) has published, a tradition that started with the 2009 SOFE in order to afford attendees the opportunity to publish an expanded version of their oral or poster presentations in a refereed journal. It has become a popular option. With each successive SOFE, more authors take advantage of the possibility offered by TPS to have their conference papers gain wider exposure and be cited by others working in fusion engineering and its related disciplines. Readers benefit as well. For example, this issue features a total of 22 papers on ITER and Wendelstein 7-X, a unique collection of papers on two projects that sit at the forefront of fusion engineering.

The winner of the 2020 TPS Best Paper Award has been selected (please refer to our TPS home page for details about the award at https://ieee-npss.org/publications/transactions-on-plasma-science/ ). This year is the second year that the award is being given, and I am pleased to announce that Prof. Chandrashekhar Joshi, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA, is the winner for his article “Laser-driven plasma accelerators operating in the self- guided, blowout regime.” This article appeared in IEEE TPS, vol. 45, pp. 3134–3146, in December 2017. The award plaque, certificate, and cheque will be presented to Prof. Joshi at an upcoming International Conference on Plasma Science in South Lake Tahoe, CA, USA, in June 2021. This is an open-access article and is freely available to our readers. Congratulations to Prof. Chan Joshi on this accomplishment.

The International Conference on Advances in Plasma Science and Technology (ICAPST-20) was held for the first time on February 12–14, 2020. The host institution was the Sri Shakthi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore, India. As Dr. K. Navaneetha Pandiyaraj, the Organizing Chair of the Conference, states in the Preface of the conference’s Book of Abstracts

This is a Special Issue containing selected papers presented at the 7th Euro-Asian Pulsed Power Conference (EAPPC 2018) and the 22nd International Conference on High-Power Particle Beams (BEAMS 2018) in Changsha, China, held on September 16–20, 2018. The objective of this Special Issue was to provide the widest possible distribution of archival quality papers detailing up-to-date developments reported at EAPPC/BEAMS 2018. This Special Issue continues the tradition of chronicling the latest advances in the domain of pulsed-power technology and high-power particle beams physics and applications.

The combined IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS) (held annually) and Pulsed Power Conference (held biennially) are merged once every six years, sponsored by the Plasma Science and Applications Committee (PSAC) and the Pulsed Power Science and Technology Committee (PPS&T) of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science Society (NPSS). The joint conference, called the Pulsed Power and Plasma Science Conference, was held on June 23–28, 2019, in Orlando, FL, USA. The conference’s technical program included a wide range of topics, which ranged from fundamental research to traditional and emerging technology applications. The conference had over 800 accepted abstracts, representing scientists from over 30 countries. The program also included a minicourse on “Computational Methods in Plasma Physics.” This year the PPPS sessions were enhanced by a number of exceptional plenary talks.

The 2018 Asia-Pacific Conference on Plasma and Terahertz Science (APCOPTS), an international conference intended to be held every two years as the Asia-Pacific version of the International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS), provides an excellent platform for academic exchange in the fields. The first APCOPTS was held from August 15 to 18, 2018 and the second APCOPTS will be combined with ICOPS in Singapore.