Study of generating nitrogen plasma jet by using glow discharge in non-uniform gap

Abstract

Experimental studies of a larger-scale atmospheric pressure glow discharge (APGD) nitrogen plasma jet are presented in this paper. A chamber with non-uniform gap formed in the electrode structure is designed by using non-uniform thickness of dielectrics. Through the electric field simulation, it is found that there is a non-uniform electric field distribution in the lateral and longitudinal directions of the chamber. The discharge starts from the larger electric field intensity of the submillimeter and then is followed by the development to the left and right sides of the smaller electric field intensity of the long gap. Moreover, the non-uniform electric field distribution in the lateral and longitudinal directions can help to suppress the generation of filament discharge. The experiments indicate that a uniform APGD in nitrogen is formed in the chamber and the inner electrode surface has a large luminous intensity. Through the fluid simulation, it is found that the velocity of the gas at the inner electrode surface is large. As a result, the nitrogen flow can effectively bring out the high-density plasmas on the inner electrode surface, which is beneficial to the formation of the plasma jet. The experimental results show that the electrode structure can generate APGD nitrogen plasma jets with the length of 10 mm and width of 15 mm, which is of relatively high application value.