Sharp bursts of high-flux reactive species in submicrosecond atmospheric pressure glow discharges

In this letter, the authors present an experimental study of the temporal characteristics of submicrosecond pulsed atmospheric glow discharges. Using electrical measurements and nanosecond-resolved optical emission spectroscopy, they show that a long initial period of each voltage pulse is spent building up space charges and is then followed by a large current pulse in the voltage-falling phase. Reactive plasma species such as oxygen atoms and OH radicals are produced in a train of sharp and independent pulses of 50-100 ns wide. Finally, their production is shown to increase significantly as the voltage pulse width reduces or the repetition frequency increases. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.