Contrasting Characteristics of Radio-Frequency Atmospheric Argon Discharges With and Without Dielectric Barriers

In this paper, the fundamental characteristics of glow discharge operation modes in radio frequency (RF) atmospheric argon discharges with and without dielectric barriers were studied by experiments. It is found that the RF dielectric-barrier discharge (DBD) in atmospheric argon operates more stable in alpha mode than RF atmospheric pressure glow discharge in argon. The ratios of oxygen and nitrogen to argon are achieved to be 9.5% and 6% in stable RF DBD in atmospheric argon, respectively. The plasmas chemistry, measured by optical emission spectra and intensity, explains that the stable alpha mode discharge range is larger with mixture of oxygen than nitrogen.