Generation of Homogeneous Atmospheric-Pressure Dielectric Barrier Discharge in a Large-Gap Argon Gas

The generation of homogeneous dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) in a 8-mm large-gap Ar at atmospheric pressure by employing a microsecond pulsed power supply excitation is presented. The electrical and optical characteristics of the homogeneous DBD are experimentally studied, and the comparison of the discharge characteristics with its sinusoidal counterpart and the improvement of the discharge stability using the water electrodes are also experimentally investigated. Results show that, as compared with filamentary-mode discharges with sinusoidal excitation, stable and homogeneous DBD with higher energy efficiency is shown to be generated using the pulsed excitation over a large voltage range, and the pulsed-excitation DBD can generate more total transferred charges per one voltage cycle with less consumed discharge power. The suppression of the instabilities by using water electrode is desirable for improving stability, and the critical voltage for generated homogeneous DBD can be improved with water electrode.