Numerical investigation of the effect of insulator permittivity on the initial stage of dielectric barrier discharge

Abstract

We present a numerical simulation of the simplified ferroelectric plasma source operating in a gas discharge mode. The plasma source contains two electrodes separated by a ferroelectric. High voltage pulse applied to the cathode leads to formation of a dielectric barrier discharge in gas (argon at 1 Torr pressure). The main point of the study is to clarify how the high permittivity of the ferroelectric affects the initial stage of the discharge. Two cases are considered with different values of barrier relative permittivity. The results show that the process of compensation of bound charge affects the electron avalanche formation near the dielectric surface. The electron concentration in the avalanche drops down for materials with higher permittivity.