Space and time analysis of the nanosecond scale discharges in atmospheric pressure air: I. Gas temperature and vibrational distribution function of N2 and O2

Abstract

Reliable experimental data on nanosecond discharge plasmas in air become more and more crucial considering their interest in a wide field of applications. However, the investigations on such nonequilibrium plasmas are made difficult by the spatial non-homogeneities, in particular under atmospheric pressure, the wide range of time scales, and the complexity of multi-physics processes involved therein. In this study, we report spatiotemporal experimental analysis on the gas temperature and the vibrational excitation of N2 and O2 in their ground electronic state during the post-discharge of an overvoltage nanosecond-pulsed discharge generated in a pin-to-plane gap of air at atmospheric pressure. The gas temperature during the pulsed discharge is measured by optical emission spectroscopy related to the rotational bands of the 0–0 vibrational transition N2(C 3 Πu, v = 0) → N2(B3 Πg, v = 0) of nitrogen. The results show a rapid gas heating up to 700 K in tens of nanoseconds after the current rise. This fast gas heating leads to a high gas temperature up to 1000 K measured at 150 ns in the first stages of the post-discharge using spontaneous Raman scattering (SRS). The spatiotemporal measurements of the gas temperature and the vibrational distribution function of N2 and O2, also obtained by SRS, over the post-discharge show the spatial expansion of the high vibrational excitation of N2, and the gas heating during the post-discharge. The present measurements, focused on thermal and energetic aspect of the discharge, provide a base for spatiotemporal analysis of gas number densities of N2, O2 and O atoms and hydrodynamic effects achieved during the post-discharge in part II of this investigation. All these results provide space and time database for the validation of plasma chemical models for nanosecond-pulsed discharges at atmospheric pressure air.