Study on moving filaments in honeycomb pattern in dielectric barrier discharge

Abstract

We report on the study of moving filaments in a honeycomb pattern in a dielectric barrier discharge system using photomultipliers, a high-speed video camera, and a spectrometer. The honeycomb pattern bifurcates from the hexagonal super-lattice pattern with increasing voltage. It is found that the honeycomb framework is composed of filaments with irregular reciprocating motion, which indicates that the honeycomb framework results from statistical self-organization. The spatiotemporal dynamics show that the pattern consists of three different sub-lattices. The plasma parameters (molecular vibrational temperature and electron density) of the pattern, determined from the optical emission spectra, show that different sub-lattices are in different plasma states. Based on these measurements, the mechanism of the movement of filaments is analyzed briefly.