In our earlier report [16], we showed that the dominant spectral lines emitted occurred during the negative portion of the
voltage waveform. The electron emission during this part of
the cycle excites and ionizes vapor species to produce the conducting plasma as well as excited radical species. In Fig. 7, we
show a spectrum from plasma generated in NaCl saline solution
which shows that the principal emissions that lie in the visible,
within the range of our spectrometer, are due to sodium D lines
as well as excited OH and H radicals. In Table II, we tabulate
the principal visible-line-emitting species in the plasma formed
from NaCl saline solution, and some of their spectroscopic attributes.
We point out that the ion emission lines expected from an
NaCl plasma lie in the UV and outside the spectral range accessible to us in this work, in addition to being inherently weak. In
Fig. 8, we show a spectrum from plasmas generated in a BaCl
solution, which although not used in surgical procedures, illustrates convincingly that ions as well as excited neutral radicals
are produced in these kinds of discharges. The barium ion lines