Polar, non-centrosymmetric crystals for the generation of atmospheric pressure gas discharges

Summary form only given. Atmospheric plasma configurations are often driven through large potentials applied to one or more electrodes. Depending on the configuration, thousands of volts are required to create breakdown in air and to initiate a discharge. To reduce the amount of potential required, inherent characteristics of certain polar non-centrosymmetric crystals are investigated to determine if they can be beneficial to discharge formation. Being non-centrosymmertic allows for mechanical, thermal, or electrical forces to alter the crystal structure to change the magnitude of the polarization within the crystal. This change in polarization can lead to rapid changes in surface potential and be used to generate a sustainable discharge. Effectively, these crystals can be used to amplify potential applied to them through the piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and ferroelectric effects. In this work, stable atmospheric pressure discharges are generated using pyroelectric and ferroelectric approaches. By thermally-cycling a pyroelectric crystal, an atmospheric pressure gas discharge was generated through the input of heat, and similarly by applying an electric field across a ferroelectric crystal, a discharge to an auxiliary electrode was generated. Systematic parametric studies were conducted to characterize the discharges and compare them to standard atmospheric pressure corona and dielectric barrier discharges.