Numerical Investigation on Atmospheric-Pressure Dielectric Barrier Discharges Driven by Combined rf and Short-Pulse Sources in Co-Axial Electrodes

Abstract

(Received July 12, 2013) Atmospheric-pressure discharges driven by combined rf and short-pulse sources in co-axial electrodes were investigated in this work using a one-dimensional self-consistent fluid model. It demonstrated that the plasma intensity in the rf discharge could be enhanced drastically when an additional low-duty-ratio pulse source was applied to the discharge. The study investigated how the plasma density varied with the voltage amplitude of the pulse source. Results showed that the discharge mode turned into glow mode as the pulse amplitude exceeded a critical value. Two cases were investigated on the premise that the outer electrode was electrically grounded: in the first case the positive pulse was applied to the inner electrode while in the second case the negative pulse was used instead, and the spatial discharge characteristics were compared.