Spatio-temporal development of microdischarges in a surface barrier discharge arrangement in air at atmospheric pressure

The spatio-temporal development of single microdischarges in an asymmetric surface barrier discharge arrangement was investigated. The arrangement consisted of two needle electrodes laid on a dielectric plate. The discharge was operated in dry air at atmospheric pressure with a sinusoidal applied voltage. The discharge was investigated by current-voltage measurements as well as two optical techniques, the intensified CCD imaging (equipped with a far-field microscope) and the cross-correlation spectroscopy. While the combined methods of iCCD imaging and far-field microscope recorded two-dimensional pictures with a high spatial resolution, the CCS recorded the spatio-temporal development of the luminosity of the 0-0 transitions of the second positive system (lambda = 337.1 nm) and first negative system (lambda = 391.5 nm) of molecular nitrogen. The intensities of these two bands were measured with a fine spatial and temporal resolution. It was found that both half periods have significant differences in the mechanism. While the positive half period behaves similar as volume or coplanar barrier discharges, during the negative half period no positive streamer was detected.