Without requiring ejection of air or the like, the amount and area of
irradiation of excited species to a workpiece surface can be increased, the whole surface can be uniformly irradiated, and the loss of effective excited species can be suppressed, whereby the treatment performance and the treatment efficiency can be remarkably improved. In a method in which a
pulse voltage is applied to a pair of opposing
discharge electrodes 1, 1 to produce
corona discharge between pointed ends 1a, 1a, and excited species including
plasma are produced by the
corona discharge, thereby conducting a surface treatment, a
magnetic field is formed in the vicinity of the pointed ends 1a, 1a of the discharge electrodes 1, 1, by
magnetic field forming means configured by a permanent
magnet 4, magnetic members 5, and pole pieces 6, and the excited species are irradiated toward the surface Wf of a workpiece W by a
Lorentz force which acts as a pushing force on charged particles moving in the
magnetic field, thereby conducting a surface treatment.