Electrical characterization of dielectric barrier discharge driven by repetitive nanosecond pulses in atmospheric air

Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is an important method to produce non-thermal plasma, which has been widely used in many fields. In the paper, a repetitive nanosecond-pulse generator is used for the excitation of DBD. Output positive pulse of the generator has a rise time of about 15 ns and a full width at half maximum of 30-40 ns, and pulse repetition frequency varies from single shot to 2 kHz. The purpose of this paper is to experiment the electrical characteristics of DBD driven by repetitive nanosecond pulses. The variables affecting discharge conditions, including air gap spacing, dielectric thickness, barrier fashion, and applied pulse repetition frequency, are investigated. The relationship between electric field, discharge current, instantaneous discharge power across air gap, and estimated electron density with the length of air gap, dielectric thickness, barrier fashion, and pulse repetition frequency is obtained respectively, and the experimental results are also discussed. In addition, two typical images exhibiting homogeneous and filamentary discharges are given with different experimental conditions. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.