Particle densities of the pulsed dielectric barrier discharges in nitrogen at atmospheric pressure

Abstract

Pulsed dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) have become a promising solution to generate atmospheric-pressure non-equilibrium plasmas. In this work, a one-dimensional fluid model is carried out to research particle densities of the pulsed nitrogen DBDs at atmospheric pressure. Averaged particle densities, time evolutions of axial distributions of particle densities and influences of discharge gap distance dg on the particle densities are systematically illustrated and discussed. The calculation results show that averaged electron densities are lower than averaged N2+ densities, but higher than other averaged ion densities. Time evolutions of axial distributions of electron, N+ and N2+ densities show two peaks during rising and falling phases of applied voltage when dg is 0.2 cm but present gradual increases during pulse width when dg is 0.6 cm, which are similar to those of N2(a′) and N2(B). Maximums of N3+ densities are close to the momentary cathode under dg of 0.2 cm but locate near the grounded electrode under dg of 0.6 cm, which are alike to those of N2(A) and N2(C). Besides, N4+ densities nearby the momentary anode are higher than those nearby the momentary cathode when dg is 0.2 cm. N(2D) has low averaged particle densities and complex time evolutions compared to N.