Large-gap AC coplanar plasma display cells: macro-cell experiments and 3-D simulations

We present experimental and simulation studies of the plasma in a macroscopic AC plasma display panel discharge cell operating with a large coplanar gap. We find that the xenon excitation efficiency is much larger than that in the conventional, small-gap electrode configuration but with larger sustaining voltage. We discuss the discharge mode and efficiency in such large gap configurations, with the help of time resolved optical diagnostics and simulations.     

Discharge characteristics in plasma display cell at high frequency

We present the experimental and simulation studies of the glow discharge plasma in a macroscopic AC plasma display panel cell operating at a high frequency. We find that at high frequencies the plasma from the previous pulse has a significant influence on the discharge properties. The xenon excitation efficiency is larger than that at low frequencies.The discharge mode and efficiency at high frequencies have been discussed in this paper.     

Characteristics of parallel-plate and planar-surface dielectric barrier discharge at atmospheric pressure

Experiments are performed to investigate and compare the characteristics of stable parallel-plate and planar-surface dielectric barrier discharge in helium gas at atmospheric pressure. The evolution of applied electric field profile and the discharge initiation processes are found quite different for both electrode geometries. Further discharge voltage, discharge current, power densities etc. are compared. The differences of basic plasma properties are presented for both the electrode configurations.     

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用Matlab软件对大气压均匀辉光放电等离子体(OAUGDP)激励器系统的电特性进行了仿真。在仿真模型中,等离子体放电被建模成一个电压控制的电流源:当加在气隙上的电压超过等离子体产生电压时,该受控电流源接通;电流源的输出电流和所加电压之间遵循幂律。建立了一个OAUGDP激励器系统中等离子体放电的电路模型。仿真结果与实际激励器系统的实验数据很吻合。仿真结果表明,在不同的运行条件下,放电电流与电压之间遵循不同的指数幂律,仿真放电电流波形也不同。     

Characteristics of a vacuum spark triggered by the transient hollowcathode discharge electron beam

The discharge characteristics of a vacuum spark triggered by the transient hollow cathode discharge (THCD) electron beam is investigated over a wide variety of discharge conditions. Two systems of the vacuum spark device have been considered-the first system powered by eight 2700-pF doorknob capacitors charged to a voltage of 40 kV (input energy of 17.6 J); while the second system employs a single 1.85-μF Maxwell capacitor discharged at a voltage of 20 kV (input energy of 370 J). The operating pressure of these systems has been varied over the range of 10 ^-2 to 10^-5 mbar in order to examine the effect of the operating pressure on the plasma formation of the vacuum spark discharge. The effectiveness of plasma heating has been found to be significantly enhanced in the two vacuum spark systems studied here. In particular, the plasma of the 17.6 J system has been observed to be heated to a condition hot enough to emit in the X-ray region when the operating pressure is reduced from 10^-2 to 10^-5 mbar. Similarly, in the case of the 370 J system, hot spot formation is also observed to occur only at a low operating pressure of 10^-4 mbar     

Time-resolved electrical and optical measurements in a plasmadisplay panel

We have used a commercially available monochrome plasma display panel (PDP) to study the electrical and optical properties of PDPs. The monochrome PDP was filled with helium at a pressure of 0.5 atm with the visible light emission observed directly from the gas discharge. The PDP is driven by an AC voltage source, operating at ~130 V at 50 kHz. With nanosecond resolution we have measured the current in the panel and the spectrally resolved light emission from the panel as a function of applied voltage. This study of a helium-filled conventional PDP is designed to provide data needed for improved modeling calculations of the plasma discharge. The ultimate goal is to achieve improved designs and efficacies for large-screen color PDP's     

Self-sustaining discharges in needle-to-plane geometry with hundreds of microns electrode gaps

Atmospheric pressure needle-to-plane discharges have been explored experimentally in electrode gaps from 100 μm to 400 μm. These discharges can be self-sustained and follow the form of existing empirical formulae describing the current-voltage characteristics of corona discharge. The discharge can also be self-sustained by its lower sustaining voltage applied between the two electrodes once it is ignited by the initial high output voltage from power supply. The experiments of charging aerosol particles by the self-sustaining discharge operating with a lowered power have shown that for particles with a diameter of 46 nm, the charging efficiency attained 43.6%.     

大气压空气等离子体羽的振动温度研究

利用三电极介质阻挡放电装置,在大气压空气中产生了较大体积的等离子体羽。采用光学方法对该等离子体羽的特性进行了研究。发现随着外加电压峰值增加,每个外加电压周期的放电脉冲个数增加。通过采集等离子体羽的发射光谱,空间分辨地研究了放电等离子体羽的振动温度。结果表明等离子体羽的振动温度随着外加电压峰值的增加而减小;随着远离喷嘴的距离的增加,等离子体振动温度先增加后减小,当距离喷嘴5.4 mm时振动温度达到最高值。对上述现象进行了定性分析。研究结果对大气压空气等离子体羽在杀菌消毒等领域的应用具有重要意义。     

激励电压对沿面介质阻挡放电特性的影响分析

近年来, 沿面介质阻挡放电(SDBD) 用作大气压下气流控制的等离子体激励器因其众多的优点受到了广泛的关注. 然而, 国内外对沿面介质阻挡放电及其应用的研究尚处于探索阶段, 对其放电特性的影响因素缺乏规律性的认识. 因此, 对SDBD 相关特性和影响因素进行研究具有重要理论意义和应用价值. 本文使用频率5 ~20 kHz,峰值电压0~30 kV 的可调正弦交流电源激励大气压环境下的 SDBD 装置. 通过调节激励电压大小, 研究了其与SDBD 放电特性之间的关系, 对等离子体放电电流、 放电形貌、 功率损耗、 诱导气流以及机械效率进行了分析. 实验结果表明,SDBD 消耗功率、 放电强度和诱导气流均会随着激励电压的增大而增大, 但机械效率存在先增大后减小的趋势, 说明等离子体流动控制中研究中存在最佳效率点.     

Electrostatic analysis for designing of efficient discharge cell structures in AC plasma displays

The high luminous efficacy of plasma display demands high luminance at reduced discharge power. The discharge power can be reduced by several steps, one of them being reduction of gas breakdown voltage. In this paper, improved discharge cell structures are introduced that favor reduction of the gas breakdown voltage. The simulated electric field profiles for these structures indicate the low voltage requirement with increased electric field concentration in the discharge gap. The experimental measurements of breakdown voltage and discharge delay time in the test panels also support the simulation results. The important features of these discharge cell structures are discussed.     

Basic characteristics of an atmospheric pressure rf generated plasma jet

A plasma jet has been developed which operates using radio frequency (rf) power and produces a stable homogeneous discharge at atmospheric pressure. Its discharge characteristics, especially the dependence of stable discharge operating range on the feed gas, were studied, and the electric parameters such as RMS current, RMS voltage and reflected power were obtained with different gas flows. These studies indicate that there is an optimum range of operation of the plasma jet for a filling with a gas mixture of He and O_2. Two "failure" modes of the discharge are identified. One is a filamentary arc when the input power is raised above a critical level, another is that the discharge disappears gradually as the addition of O_2 approaches 3.2%. Possible explanations for the two failure modes have been given. The current and voltage waveform measurements show that there is a clear phase shift between normal and failure modes. In addition, I－V curves as a function of pure helium and for 1% addition of oxygen have been studied.     

One-dimensional fluid and circuit simulation of an AC plasmadisplay cell

A one-dimensional multispecies model of a helium filled AC plasma display cell is described. The model includes a continuity equation for each species. Poisson's equation and a circuit equation. The fill gas is helium for which the cross sections for ionization and excitation for the various atomic states are well known. The reaction rates for the different species were parametrized as functions of E/N using a zero-dimensional spatial and two velocity multispecies Boltzmann kinetic code. Calculations are performed using address and sustain voltages operating at a frequency of 50 kHz to model the pulse behavior of a dielectric barrier discharge which occurs over a time scale on the order of 200 ns or less. The code simulates multipulse behavior and shows reasonably good agreement with experimental data. The simulations show that the circuit filters out the discharge dynamics and that the pulse width of the discharge current depends on the circuit RC time constant. Using a 123 V sustain voltage, the calculated discharge current is 0.4 A with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 28 ns. Experimental values using a 120 V sustain voltage are 0.32 A discharge current and 42 ns FWHM     

分段表面放电沉积效率研究

 利用一种结构紧凑的分段表面放电辐射源模块，详细研究了在不同电压、电容、气压实验条件下回路等效电阻、等效电感及放电能量沉积效率的变化规律，利用四分幅相机拍摄获得了不同实验条件下的放电等离子体通道图像，分析讨论了放电等离子体运动对放电能量沉积效率的影响，提出了提高能量放电沉积效率的有效途径。     

交流等离子体显示器的红外辐射光谱

为优化交流等离子体显示器(AC PDP)的单元结构和驱动电压,采用光谱测量系统和交流等离子体显示器宏单元对电极结构参量、带有浮动电极的新型单元结构及维持电压脉冲参量对Ne-Xe混合气体放电辐射的红外光谱的影响进行了实验研究。结果表明,随着维持电极宽度增加,单元放电辐射的828 nm红外光谱的强度提高,而其辐射效率基本保持不变;随着维持电极间隙增大或在维持电极间加有适当宽度的浮动电极,红外辐射光谱的强度及其辐射效率均提高;提高维持电压脉冲频率或幅度,可增加红外辐射强度,但辐射效率降低。     

Simulation of radio-frequency atmospheric pressure glow discharge in γ mode

The existence of two diffe1：ent discharge modes has been verified in an rf （radio-frequency） atmospheric pressure glow discharge （APGD） by Shi [J. Appl. Phys. 97, 023306 （2005）]. In the first mode, referred to as a mode, the discharge current density is relatively low and the bulk plasma electrons acquire the energy due to the sheath expansion. In the second mode, termed γ mode, the discharge current density is relatively high, the secondary electrons emitted by cathodc under ion bombardment in the cathode sheath region play an important role in sustaining the discharge. In this paper, a one-dimensional self-consistent fluid model for rf APGDs is used to simulate the discharge mechanisms in the mode in helium discharge between two parallel metallic planar electrodes. The results show that as the applied voltage increases, the discharge current becomes greater and the plasma density correspondingly increases, consequentially the discharge transits from the a mode into the γ mode. The high collisionality of the APGD plasma results in significant drop of discharge potential across the sheath region, and the electron Joule heating and the electron collisional energy loss reach their maxima in the region. The validity of the simulation is checked with the available experimental and numerical data.     

Over recovery in low pressure spark gaps-confirmation of pressurereduction in over recovery

The over recovery in sparkgaps (Nagesh, 1997, Nagesh et al., 1999) operating along the left-hand side of Paschens' characteristics is due to pressure reduction in the gap after the first pulse discharge. This pressure reduction leading to over recovery in low pressure spark gaps has been verified using a low pressure spark gap with two spark gaps placed one above the other in the same chamber. The breakdown voltage strength characteristics of the second gap has been determined for gap spacings of 3.5 mm to 10 mm, diffusion of plasma in the direction of vacuum pumping and opposite, at a pressure of 2.1 Pa for hydrogen gas. The vacuum pumping direction has a great influence on the breakdown strength characteristics of second gap after the first gap discharge. The breakdown voltage of the second gap can exceed its self breakdown voltage only 1) when the diffusion of plasma and vacuum pumping direction are same and 2) when the second gap spacing is greater than or equal to first gap spacing. Shorter gaps can always have breakdown voltage lower than or equal to their self breakdown voltage. The experimental setups, behavior of self breakdown voltages of second gap due to breakdown in the first gap, over recovery characteristics of spark gaps, the results, and discussions are presented here     

Simulation of the ignition transient in RF inductively-coupled plasma torches

The paper deals with the time-dependent numerical simulation of inductively-coupled plasma torches during the ignition transient, which is induced by a graphite rod and leads to the final, self-sustaining plasma condition. The study has been performed by using a 2D time-dependent fluid-magnetic code based on the SIMPLER algorithm within the assumptions of laminar flow, local thermodynamic equilibrium conditions and optically thin plasma. The graphite rod has been treated as a real obstacle for the gas and the electron emission due to the thermoionic effect has been suitably taken into account. The advantage of using a time-dependent code in order to select different plasma operating conditions that can lead to stable discharges is pointed out. Results for both argon and air discharges are presented for different torch geometries, RF frequencies and inlet gas configurations (also including the presence of a carrier gas injected along the axis of the torch). Moreover, the final self-sustaining plasma configurations obtained are compared, when available, with results coming from static models, which have been published by other authors. Received 29 December 2000     

Electrode design for a magnetically stabilized glow discharge

The operational characteristics of a magnetically stabilized glow discharge are investigated for several different experimental electrode configurations. In this parametric study, successive geometries were designed to accommodate and/or control specific aspects of the plasma glow process. In this manner, an electrode structure which optimizes discharge stability and promotes glow uniformity over an extended active volume, was ultimately achieved. The study teaches a promising new technique for significantly increasing the power density of high power gas lasers.Experimental data is in excellent correlation with predictions provided by a previous numerical study of this magnetic stabilization process.     

三种电极的大气压氩等离子体射流光学特性

采用铜片-单匝线圈电极、螺旋缠绕电极和双铜片电极3种结构的放电装置,以氩气作为工作气体,在正弦波激励下获得了大气压等离子体射流。利用电学方法测量了放电电流以及电荷量,并对放电脉冲和放电功率进行了研究;利用发射光谱法对射流的等离子体参量进行了空间分辨测量,并根据ArⅠ 763.5 nm和Ar Ⅰ 772.4 nm的光强计算了电子激发温度。结果发现：在外加电压的正负半周期内,电流脉冲的个数和幅值呈现非对称的变化趋势;随着外加电压的增加,3种结构电极的放电功率从1.7 W逐渐增加到6.0 W;在相同的外加电压情况下,电极面积越小,等离子体射流的长度越长;3种等离子体射流的电子激发温度在1 348.5~3 212.1 K之间,并且随着气体流量的增加,各位置的电子激发温度总体上呈下降趋势,而等离子体的电子密度呈上升趋势。实验结果表明：外加电压对放电功率有一定影响;射流长度与电极面积有关;气体流量对电子激发温度和电子密度的空间分布起重要作用。