Optical and electrical characteristics of air dielectric barrier discharges in mode transition at atmospheric pressure

Abstract

Atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) have a wide range of industrial applications, generally exhibiting either filamentary or diffuse (i.e. glow) discharges. The focus of this investigation is on the formation mechanisms of the discharge current pulse width, on the order of tens of microseconds, accompanied by a light source formation, which is called a light source (LS) mode in air DBDs at atmospheric pressure. From a macroscopic point of view, the characteristics of the discharge current in the LS mode are similar with those of the glow mode. The optical and electrical characteristics of air DBDs at atmospheric pressure are investigated in the transition from the filamentary mode to the LS mode by measuring the optical emission spectroscopy and electrical signals. It is shown that in the manual increasing voltage stage, the vibrational temperature almost never changes and the gas temperature, electron temperature, dielectric capacitance, gas voltage (Vg) and discharge power (P) increase with an increase in the applied voltage. In the automatic decreasing voltage stage, all of these parameters, except Vg and P, increase with a decrease in the voltage. But, when the voltage decreases to a minimum value corresponding to the LS mode, P reaches a maximum value. In this paper, the variations of these parameters are analyzed and discussed in detail. The formation of the LS mode originates from the secondary electrons. The formation mechanisms of the secondary electrons are also discussed.