Stability of atmospheric pressure glow discharges

Abstract

There has been a considerable interest in non-thermal atmospheric pressure discharges over the past decade due to increased number of industrial applications. Although non-thermal atmospheric pressure discharges have been intensively studied for the past century the clear physical picture of these discharges is far from being complete. Spontaneous transition of non-thermal atmospheric pressure discharges to thermal discharge and discharge filamentation are among least understood plasma phenomena. The discharge stability and reliable control of plasma parameters are highly desirable for numerous applications. This study focuses on stability of atmospheric pressure glow discharges with respect to filamentation and arcing. Atmospheric pressure glow discharge (APG) is the newest and the most promising addition to the family of non-thermal atmospheric pressure discharges. However this discharge is very susceptible to thermal instability which causes arcing, loss of uniformity and significant damage to electrodes. Suppression of thermal instability and effective control of discharge parameters is critical for industrial applications. A model was developed to understand transition to arc in atmospheric pressure glow discharges. APG discharges that operate in pure helium and in helium with addition of oxygen and nitrogen were considered in these studies. Simulation results indicate that arcing is the result of sheath breakdown rather than thermal instability. It was shown that although sheath breakdown is always followed by overheating the transition to arc in atmospheric glow discharges is not a result of thermal instability. In second part of this research interaction between plasma filaments in dielectric barrier discharges has been studied. This interaction is responsible for the formation of microdischarge patterns reminiscent of two-dimensional crystals. Depending on the application, microdischarge patterns may have a significant influence on DBD performance, particularly when spatial uniformity is desired. A microdischarge interaction model is proposed and a Monte-Carlo simulation of microdischarge interactions in the discharge is presented. A new method for analysis of microdischarge patterns that allow measuring the degree of pattern regularity was developed. Simulated and experimental patterns were compared using the newly developed method. Analysis of microdischarge patterns shows that regularity of the patterns increases with the number of excitation cycles used to produce the pattern.