The temporal behavior of O atom of a nonequilibrium atmospheric pressure plasma driven by kHz nanosecond voltage pulses

Abstract

AbstractThis work investigates the temporal dynamics of O atoms in nonequilibrium atmospheric pressure plasma (NAPP) generated by kHz nanosecond pulsed discharge. Two‐photon laser‐induced fluorescence (TALIF) method is used to measure the time resolution of O atom density from the first discharge pulse in two gas mixtures, He + 0.4%O2 and He + 0.4%air. The discharge frequencies of 1 and 10 kHz are considered in the experiment. The results show that the O atom density does not accumulate with increasing number of pulses in both gas environments at 1 kHz. However, at 10 kHz, a cumulative effect of O atom density with the number of pulses is observed in both gas mixtures. After 10 and 300 discharge pulses in He + 0.4%O2 and He + 0.4%air, respectively, the O atom density saturates at the same moment after each discharge cycle. It was found that even after a long operating period of discharge, the decay of O atom density during each discharge cycle is not negligible. The O atom density in He + 0.4%O2 varies in the range of 2.85 × 1021 m−3–4.29 × 1021 m−3 while the O atom density in He + 0.4%air varies in the range of 2.60 × 1021 m−3–3.19 × 1021 m−3. This indicates that the choice of diagnostic time points is important for the O atom density measurements when using TALIF to diagnose kHz pulsed NAPP. In addition, 0D plasma chemical kinetics models are developed for the two gas mixtures to investigate O atoms' production and consumption processes. The causes of the cumulative effect of O atom density at 10 kHz, the saturation effect, and the formation of the periodic variation trend are also investigated. The simulation results show that the consumption rate of O atoms and the O atom density are directly correlated. As the number of pulses increases, the O atom consumption rate increases, which gradually counteracts the number of O atoms generated during the pulse discharge. This leads to delay and saturation of the cumulative effect of O atoms.