Diagnostics of dielectric barrier discharge plasma and comparison of the results with PIC code

Summary form only given. In this paper an effort has been made to diagnose the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma using optical emission spectroscopy (OES) and electrical analysis. The results have been compared with commercial particle-in-cell simulation (PIC) code ‘OOPIC-Pro’ to validate the results. Helium is used as working gas in the volume arrangement of the developed DBD source. Investigations are carried out using sinusoidal and pulse power supplies for the generation of microdischarges where two current pulses are observed in a single period. A diffuse type of discharge has been observed for different operating conditions. The electrical characterization has been performed using equivalent electrical circuit model¹⁻². The electron plasma density and temperature have been estimated using line-ratio technique³ of the observed visible neutral helium lines. The estimated electron plasma density and temperature from the PIC code for the same geometry and operating conditions is found in close proximity. Short exposure images of helium DBD emission have also been recorded at different operating conditions which indicate different discharge patterns in pulsed and sinusoidal waveforms.