SignificancePlasmas at atmospheric pressure conditions are ubiquitous, in natural form, such as the familiar lightning, or produced through artificially created electromagnetic or electrostatic fields for industrial and scientific applications. One distinctive feature of these cold-type plasmas is their lack of a topologically defined shape, concurrent with spatial unsteadiness and nonuniformity. Here, we report the observation of a coherent and stable toroidal plasma that spontaneously forms under extreme hydrodynamic shear, without external electromagnetic action. The confined and chamberless nature of this plasmoid has potential implications for the investigation of plasma–matter interactions, in the development of plasma-based deposition techniques for the microelectronics industry, in the emerging field of plasma medicine, or as a model for energy-storing self-maintained plasmoids.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.