Effects of ionic liquid electrode on pulse discharge plasmas in the wide range of gas pressures

Abstract

Gas–liquid interfacial pulse discharge plasmas are generated in the wide range of gas pressures, where an ionic liquid is used as the liquid electrode. By analyzing the characteristics of discharge voltage and current, the discharge mechanisms at low and high pressures are found to be dominated by secondary electron emission and first Townsend ionization, respectively. Therefore, the discharge properties at low and high pressures are mainly determined by the cathode material and the discharge gas type, respectively. Furthermore, the plasma properties are investigated by a double Langmuir probe. The density of the positive pulse plasma is found to be much smaller than that of the negative pulse plasma, although the discharge voltage and current of the negative and positive pulse plasmas are of the same order of magnitude. The positive pulse discharge plasma is considered to quickly diffuse onto the chamber wall from the radially central region due to its high plasma potential compared with that in the peripheral region.