Spectra of electrons and X-ray photons in a diffusive nanosecond discharge in air under atmospheric pressure

The spectra of electrons and X-ray photons generated in nanosecond discharges in air under atmospheric pressure are investigated theoretically and experimentally. Data for the discharge formation dynamics in a nonuniform electric field are gathered. It is confirmed that voltage pulses with an amplitude of more than 100 kV and a rise time of 1 ns or less causing breakdown of an electrode gap with a small-radius cathode generate runaway electrons, which can be divided into three groups in energy (their energy varies from several kiloelectronvolts to several hundreds of kiloelectronvolts). It is also borne out that the formation of the space charge is due to electrons appearing in the gap at the cathode and a major contribution to the electron beam behind the foil comes from electrons of the second group, the maximal energy of which roughly corresponds to the voltage across the gap during electron beam generation. X-ray radiation from the gas-filled diode results from beam electron slowdown both in the anode and in the gap. It is shown that the amount of group-3 electrons with an energy above the energy gained by runaway electrons (in the absence of losses) at a maximal voltage across the gap is much smaller than the amount of group-2 electrons.     

X-ray radiation due to nanosecond volume discharges in air under atmospheric pressure

The formation of nanosecond discharges in atmospheric-pressure air versus the applied pulse polarity and discharge gap geometry is studied. It is shown that the polarity of high-voltage nanosecond pulses and the electrode configuration have a minor effect on the volume discharges under a variety of experimental conditions. When the spacing between needle-like electrodes is large, the discharge is asymmetric and its glow is weakly dependent on the sign of the potential applied to the electrode. Negative voltage pulses applied to the potential electrode generate X-ray radiation from both the surface and volume. For a subnanosecond rise time of the voltage pulse and diffusion character of the discharge, the X-ray radiation comes from the brightly glowing region of a corona discharge. The average values of the fast electron velocity and energy in nitrogen are calculated. At field strengths E/p < 170 kV/cm atm, the average velocity of a fast electron bunch is constant because of central collisions. At field strengths E/p > 170 kV/cm atm, fast electrons run away. Central collisions are the reason for X-ray radiation from the volume.     

Parametric study of radiofrequency helium discharge under atmospheric pressure

The parameters of radiofrequency helium discharge under atmospheric pressure were studied by electrical and optical measurements using high voltage probe, current probe and optical emission spectroscopy. Two discharge modes α and γ were observed within certain limits. During α to γ mode transition, a decrease in voltage (280–168 V), current (2.05–1.61 A) and phase angle (76^°–56^°) occurred. The discharge parameters such as resistance, reactance, sheath thickness, electron density, excitation temperature and gas temperature were assessed by electrical measurements using equivalent circuit model and optical emission spectroscopy. In α mode, the discharge current increased from 1.17 to 2.05 A, electron density increased from 0.19 × 10¹² to 0.47 × 10¹² cm^?3 while sheath thickness decreased from 0.40 to 0.25 mm. The excitation temperatures in the α and γ modes were 3266 and 4500 K respectively, evaluated by Boltzmann’s plot method. The estimated gas temperature increased from 335 K in the α mode to 485 K in the γ mode, suggesting that the radiofrequency atmospheric pressure helium discharge can be used for surface treatment applications.     

Stable dust structures in non-self-sustained gas discharge under atmospheric pressure

The formation of stable dust structures in electron-beam-controlled non-self-sustained discharge plasma was predicted and experimentally observed. To determine the conditions for dust-particle levitation, the self-consisted one-dimensional simulation of a non-self-sustained gas discharge was carried out using a nonlocal model of charged plasma-particle transport with allowance for electron diffusion. It is shown that, in the cathode layer of a non-self-sustained gas discharge, a strong electric field arises in the Thomson regime, which, in conjunction with the gravity force, forms a potential well where the dust particles undergo levitation.     

Photo-resist ashing by atmospheric pressure glow discharge

Homogeneous glow plasma at atmospheric pressure without streamers and arcing was generated by making use of a radio-frequency (RF, 13.56 MHz) power supply. Oxygen gas was added to Ar/He gas as reactive agents for photo-resist (PR) ashing. The input power, flow rate, oxygen concentration, treatment time, substrate temperature are controlled for high ashing rate and uniform ashing. Thickness of PR film was measured by NANOSPEC (AFT200) and α-Step (P-10). An unstable discharge occurs destroying the uniformity, when the input power exceeds a threshold value determined from the distance between the substrate and plasma source. An increase of oxygen quantity or temperature increase makes high ashing rate, but the ashing surface is rugged. The PR ashing rate was related to oxygen atom in plasma. The number of treatment may not be important in PR ashing at the atmospheric pressure.     

On value of transferred charge in silent discharge under atmospheric pressure

The dependence of the ratio of a charge transferred inside a discharge gap and a charge transferred in an outer circuit on the width of the discharge gap was measured in a silent discharge in oxygen, air and argon under atmospheric pressure. These dependences lie below theoretical curves derived from a one-dimensional model.     

常压窄间隙介质阻挡放电等离子体辐射特性

利用带有透明电极与可测向观察的一个介质阻挡放电(DBD)实验装置对它的常压窄间隙等离子体辐射特性进行了实验研究。结果表明：这一DBD装置的辐射特性会受激励电压、激励频率、DBD结构等多种因素影响。在频率为10～20kHz高压电源激励下,采用窄间隙、薄电介质层结构DBD可以大幅度提高放电空间的电场强度,增加放电功率密度,提高了放电装置性能。     

Ultrashort electron beam and volume high-current discharge in air under the atmospheric pressure

Conditions are studied under which an electron beam and a volume discharge with a subnanosecond rise time of a voltage pulse are produced in air under atmospheric pressure. It is shown that the electron beam appears in a gas-filled diode at the front of the voltage pulse in ∼0.5 ns, has a half-intensity duration of ≤0.4 ns and an average electron energy of ∼0.6 of the voltage across the gas-filled diode, and terminates when the voltage across the gap reaches its maximum value. The electron beam with an average electron energy of 60 to 80 keV and a current amplitude of ≥70 A is obtained. It is assumed that the electron beam is formed from electrons produced in the gap due to gas ionization by fast electrons when the intensity of the field between the front of the expanding plasma cloud and the anode reaches its critical value. A nanosecond volume discharge with a specific power input of ≥400 MW/cm³, a density of the discharge current at the anode of up to 3 kA/cm², and specific energy deposition of ∼1 J/cm³ over 3 to 5 ns is created.     

大气压等离子体针产生空气均匀放电特性研究

大气压空气放电由于脱离了真空装置,易于实现流水线生产,因而在工业上具有广泛的应用. 采用等离子体针装置在空气中产生了稳定的大气压均匀放电. 利用光谱法对等离子体的相关参数进行了空间分辨率测量,并通过光学方法对放电机理进行了研究. 结果表明,等离子体针产生的放电存在电晕放电和等离子体羽放电两种模式. 在稳定的等离子体羽放电模式中,发光分为强光区和弱光区. 弱光区放电的发展速度远大于强光区的发展速度,电子能量和电子密度均是弱光区比强光区大. 对均匀放电的气体温度和振动温度的研究表明,强光区放电遵循汤生击穿机理而弱光区为流光放电. 这些结果对大气压空气放电的工业应用具有重要意义. 关键词： 大气压均匀放电 等离子体针 发射光谱 放电机理     

Numerical simulation and experimental validation of a direct current air corona discharge under atmospheric pressure

Air corona discharge is one of the critical problems associated with high-voltage equipment. Investigating the corona mechanism plays a key role in enhancing the electrical insulation performance. An improved self-consistent multi-component two-dimensional plasma hybrid model is presented for the simulation of a direct current atmospheric pressure corona discharge in air. The model is based on plasma hydrodynamic and chemical models, and includes 12 species and 26 reactions. In addition, the photoionization effect is introduced into the model. The simulation on a bar-plate electrode configuration with an inter-electrode gap of 5.0 mm is carried out. The discharge voltage-current characteristics and the current density distribution predicted by the hybrid model agree with the experimental measurements. In addition, the dynamics of volume charged species generation, discharge current waveform, current density distribution at an electrode, charge density, electron temperature, and electric field variations are investigated in detail based on the model. The results indicate that the model can contribute valuable insights into the physics of an air plasma discharge.     

空气中大气压下均匀辉光放电的可能性

利用介质阻挡电极结构,对101325×105Pa气压下空气间隙中的放电进行了实验研究,数值模拟计算了实验条件下电子雪崩的发展过程.结果表明:对于长度不大于2mm的空气间隙,可能实现辉光放电.对于长度不小于5mm的空气间隙,如果不能设法降低放电场强,放电必然是流注形式,不可能实现辉光放电.另外,实验结果未能验证“离子捕获”机理降低放电场强而实现辉光放电的正确性 关键词： 大气压辉光放电 电子雪崩 流注     

Removal of paper microbial contamination by atmospheric pressure DBD discharge

In this paper the removal of the microbial contamination from paper material using the plasma treatment at atmospheric pressure is investigated. The Aspergillus niger has been chosen as a bio-indicator enabling to evaluate the effect of plasma assisted microbial inactivation. Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) operated at atmospheric pressure was used for the paper sterilization. The working gas (nitrogen, argon and helium), plasma exposition time and the plasma power density were varied in order to see the effect of the plasma treatment on the fungi removal. After the treatment, the microbial abatement was evaluated by the standard plate count method. This proved a positive effect of the DBD plasma treatment on fungi removal. Morphological and colorimetric changes of paper substrate after plasma treatment were also investigated.     

Optical characteristics of a transverse discharge in neon at atmospheric pressure

We present the results of investigation into radiation of a pulsed transverse discharge in neon at a pressure of 10–200 kPa. Survey spectra of plasma radiation, time characteristics of radiation, and the effect of small impurities of water vapors and air on the optical characteristics of a neon plasma were studied. We show that at a pressure of residual gases at a level of 10 Pa intense OH*, NO*, and N _* ² bands are observed in radiation of the plasma of a nanosecond transverse discharge in Ne against the background of continuous plasma radiation, and in the spectral region with λ>400 nm radiation was observed on the H_β 486.1 nm and NeI 585.3 nm lines, and (when P≥100 kPa) on the line at the 3s–3p-transitions of a Ne atom. The radiation intensity of the third continuum of neon increases with pressure and with energy contribution to plasma, with its maximum being located in the VUV spectral region (λ _max <200 nm). To whom correspondence should be adressed. Uzhgorod State University, 46, Pidgirna St., Uzhgorod, Ukraine. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 66, No. 1, pp. 5–10, January–February, 1999.     

Physics of a high-frequency electrodeless discharge in argon at atmospheric pressure

Electron concentration, excitation temperature, and ionization temperature are determined as functions of radius for a cylindrical discharge. The results are compared with published data for inductively coupled discharges.     

Spatiotemporal parameters of the X-ray radiation from a diffuse atmospheric-pressure discharge

A multichannel photoelectron technique is used to study the X-ray radiation emitted from a nanosecond diffuse discharge initiated in atmospheric pressure air in a point-plane electrode system with a gap width varying from 6 to 12 cm. The discharge is initiated by a voltage pulse with a moderate rate of rise of 1.1 × 10¹³ V/s and an amplitude of 160–280 kV. The radiation detected is found to be anisotropic bremsstrahlung of electrons accelerated to 30–80 keV in the near-cathode region early at the conduction phase. The observed features of the radiation and electrical behavior of the discharge are explained by strengthening of the near-cathode field owing to a short-term disappearance of the space-charge-related screening when the discharge passes from the bridging phase to the conduction one.     

X-ray radiation from the volume discharge in atmospheric-pressure air

X-ray radiation from the volume discharge in atmospheric-pressure air is studied under the conditions when the voltage pulse rise time varies from 0.5 to 100 ns and the open-circuit voltage amplitude of the generator varies from 20 to 750 kV. It is shown that a volume discharge from a needle-like cathode forms at a relatively wide voltage pulse (to ≈60 ns in this work). The volume character of the discharge is due to preionization by fast electrons, which arise when the electric field concentrates at the cathode and in the discharge gap. As the voltage pulse rise time grows, X-ray radiation comes largely from the discharge gap in accordance with previous experiments. Propagation of fast avalanche electrons in nitrogen subjected to a nonuniform unsteady electric field is simulated. It is demonstrated that the amount of hard X-ray photons grows not only with increasing voltage amplitude but also with shortening pulse rise time.     

Microstructure of the current channel of an atmospheric-pressure diffuse discharge in a rod-plane air gap

The multichannel structure of the current channel of an atmospheric-pressure diffuse discharge excited in a 10-cm rod-plane air gap was investigated using the imprint technique. A voltage pulse with an amplitude of 240 kV, a duration of 180 ns, and a rise time of 14 ns was applied to a 1-cm-diameter bullet-shaped cathode with a tip curvature radius of 0.2 mm; the discharge current reached 350 A. It is found that the diameter of the discharge channel in the anode plane varies in the range 2.5–9.7 mm from shot to shot. The overall imprint of the current channel is formed of 170–9500 imprints of microchannels with an average diameter of 5–20 μm. The parameters of the observed microstructure do not correlate with variations in the main electric characteristics of the discharge and the parameters of the generated X-ray pulse. It is shown that the formation of the microstructure is related to the onset of cathode-directed plasma structures developing from the anode. It is suggested that the same mechanism is responsible for both the formation of the current channels structure and the anode microstructure of diffuse nanosecond discharges developing in atmospheric-pressure air gaps with a highly nonuniform electric field.     

Characteristics of a glow discharge in atmospheric pressure air over the water surface

The current-voltage characteristics, the amount of cathode fall, and the spectra of plasma radiation from different spatial domains are presented versus the molecular band intensity of products arising in an atmospheric-pressure air glow discharge over the distilled water surface. The plasma electron temperature is also reported. The distance to a liquid cathode or anode is varied from 1 to 10 mm at a discharge mean current of 10–36 mA.