Measurement of ion density in an atmospheric pressure argon with pin-to-plate dielectric barrier discharge by resonance of plasma radiation

Abstract

The measurements of the ion densities in the atmospheric AC barrier corona argon discharge are carried out by receiving and analyzing the frequencies of the electromagnetic radiation emitted from the plasma. An auxiliary excitation source composed of a pin-to-pin discharge system is introduced to excite the oscillations of the main discharge. To analyze the resonance mechanism, a complemented model based on a one-dimensional description of forced vibrations is given. Calculations indicate that Ar2+ is the dominant ion (∼89% in number density). By analyzing resonance frequencies, the ion densities of Ar2+ are in the order of 1019∼1020m−3 and increase slowly as the applied voltage increases.