Intermittent discharge in a complex stripe pattern in dielectric barrier discharge

Abstract

The intermittent discharge that filament only discharges once in a cycle rather than once every half-cycle is observed in all the three substructures of the (bright spots)–(dark spots)-halo stripe pattern (BDHSP) in dielectric barrier discharge. The discharge characteristics are investigated by a high-speed video camera, an intensified charge-coupled device camera, and two photomultiplier tubes. It is found that the direction of the stripe choose to form in BDHSP is determined by the direction in which the surface discharge is stronger in the square pattern. The spatiotemporal dynamics results of BDHSP suggest that bright spot (B) discharges in this half-cycle, and the dark spot (D) and the halo (H) discharge in the next half-cycle of the applied voltage, which is intermittent discharge. Combined with the analysis in the electric field simulation, it can be concluded that the intermittent discharge is the result of the mutual influence between the directional selective surface discharge induced by bright spots and dark spots. Overall, the BDHSP is formed by the self-organization of the wall charge under the interaction between the plasma physical processes and the spatial distribution. The discovery of the intermittent discharge provides insight and enlightenment for the study of plasma physics.