Shuai Zhao is currently working on plasma diagnostics based on laser technique and exploring the interactions between plasma and targets.

The project includes three parts: first, the development of the laser diagnostics platform. Shuai Zhao has developed a complete laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) system from scratch to measure the absolute densities of species including NO and O in plasma jets. The entire system he designed includes the plasma jet, the pump laser + dye laser adjustment, the optical path, the collection of the signal, the automatic control of this setup, and the safety interlock circuit for this whole system. Secondly, Shuai Zhao implements the measurement of reactive species in the plasma jet to understand how these species are generated and transported. Last, Shuai Zhao looks into the species generation when targets are present underneath the plasma, which gives insight into how targets influence the plasma properties in the case of sample treatment.