Abstract Fluidic oscillators are no-moving-part actuators that can be used to produce pulsating jets. The characteristics of these devices and of the flow fields they produce are of particular interest in the field of heat transfer, as pulsating impinging jets have been shown to improve heat transfer compared to steady jets. In this study, special focus is given to these characteristics as a preparation for a subsequent thermal study that will evaluate the performance of these pulsed jets against steady jets. The functioning of the device in response to different operating and design parameters is first considered. It was shown that a transition between different operating modes is possible, depending on both the inlet mass flow rate and the width of the feedback channel of the device. This was followed by a study of the velocity fields of the pulsed jets produced by the device. More specifically, attention is given to the developing characteristics and flow structures of the pulsating free jets of air which are then compared to equivalent steady jets. Finally, by taking advantage of the periodic aspect of the flow, the phase-averaged velocity field was reconstructed. Vortex dipoles were detected, tracked and their convection velocity computed from the same data and compared to a theoretical value from the literature. A Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) of the synchronized raw data was then performed to further highlight the presence of these vortex structures and of other flow instabilities.