Abstract
Pattern formation and self-organization are fascinating phenomena found widely in nature and in laboratory environment such as dielectric barrier discharge (DBD). Significant efforts have been made to explain the dynamic pattern formation. In DBD, the formation of side discharges is generally supposed to be a key factor responsible for diversity and spatial-temporal symmetry breaking of pattern formation. However, it is still not clear how such discharges are induced. Here, we present the observations of side discharges in a filamentary dielectric barrier discharge from both numerical simulations and experiments. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations with Monte Carlo collisions included have revealed formation dynamics of side discharges, suggesting that transverse plasma diffusion and ion induced secondary electron emission play critical roles. Moreover, a novel honeycomb superlattice pattern is observed in experiment, where the side discharges associated with honeycomb superlattice are verified by utilizing a high speed camera. Experimental observations and numerical simulation are in good agreement.
Highlights
From zebra stripes to a honeycomb lattice, nature features various breathtaking patterns, which have aroused a lot of fascination and puzzle throughout human history[1, 2]
We investigate the formation of side discharges in dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) both in experiment and numerical simulation
We present the first kinetic simulation on side discharges by using two-dimensional simulations with Monte Carlo collisions included (PIC-MCC)
Summary
Weili Fan[1,2,3], Zhengming Sheng 1,2,4, Lifang Dong[3], Fucheng Liu[3], Xiaoxia Zhong1,Yiqian Cui[3], Fang Hao3 & Tian Du3. Increasing attention has been paid to the dielectric barrier discharge system (DBD), which is capable of producing the most varieties of patterns with simple experimental setup[4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14] These plasma patterns generally exhibit high spatial-temporal symmetries at the macroscopic level, such as the hexagonal or square Bravais lattices in space and the harmonic or subharmonic symmetry in time. From the microscopic view, the filaments are always characterized by complex dynamics and interactions These intriguing phenomena pose deep questions on the underlying physics of DBDs. The formation of side discharges is generally supposed to be a key factor responsible for diversity and rich dynamical behaviors of DBD patterns. The correspondence of experimental and numerical findings is strikingly good
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