Submicrosecond pulsed atmospheric glow discharges sustained without dielectric barriers at kilohertz frequencies

In this letter, the authors report the experimental observation of a large-volume atmospheric glow discharge sustained without dielectric barriers at 1 kHz. This barrier-free mode of operation is made possible with a submicrosecond pulsed excitation instead of the usual sinusoidal excitation. Its current-voltage characteristics are shown to be very different from conventional atmospheric dielectric barrier discharges, and its generation mechanism is studied with nanosecond resolved optical emission spectroscopy. The pulsed barrier-free atmospheric plasma is shown to produce very intense atomic oxygen emission line at 777 nm, up to one magnitude more intensive than that of a comparable atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.