CONDENSED MATTER AGEING BEHAVIOR OF He DBD TREATED GLASS SURFACE A. SIMON, O.E. DINU, M.A. PAPIU, C.D. TUDORAN, S.D. ANGHEL Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Physics, M. Kogălniceanu street 1, 400084 Cluj-Napoca, România, E-mail: alpar.simon@phys.ubbcluj.ro Received November 9, 2011 This paper reports the ageing behavior of a 1.74 MHz cross-field He Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) treated glass surface. The spectroscopic characterization identified the reactive species and confirmed the non-thermal and non-equilibrium character of the discharge. Water contact angle measurements and AFM topography demostrated the enhancement of hydrophilicity and cleaning of the surface. Key words: dielectric barrier discharge, plasma treatment, glass, ageing. 1. INTRODUCTION Several years ago plasma treatment of glasses was considered to be one of the most promising areas in glass manufacturing and applications [1]. Nowadays non- thermal plasmas have been widely used to alter the surface properties of various types of glasses without affecting their bulk properties. The majority of plasma assisted technologies were based on low pressure processes. In recent years, however, due to the lower operational and maintenance costs and simpleness of the equipments, non-thermal atmospheric pressure discharges have attracted considerable interest for use in surface modification techniques [2]. Specific surface properties like hydrophobicity, hydrophilicity, wettability, printability, biocompatibility, roughness, hardness or electrical conductivity can be modified to meet the specific requirements of specific applications. One of the most important requirement for a plasma modified material is to keep its new surface properties as long as possible. Several papers deal with this subject for plasma treated polymer surfaces [3-7]. Thus, the study of the ageing of a plasma exposed glass surface could offer important information about the durability in time of the treatment. This paper presents preliminary results about the ageing behavior of a glass surface treated in a 1.74 MHz He Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD). Rom. Journ. Phys., Vol. 57, Nos. 9–10, P. 1367–1374, Bucharest, 2012