Pulsed discahrge plasma generated by nano-seconds pulsed power in atmospheric air

Non-thermal plasma has been widely used for various applications. The observation of discharge plasmas is an essential aspect for understanding the plasma physics of this growing field. In this work, the propagation of pulsed discharges was observed by both framing and streak images and spectroscopy. The results showed two discharge phases exist in pulsed discharge with 100 ns in pulse width; streamer and glow-like phase. Between those two phases, the electrode impedance changed dramatically which causes impedance mismatching between the power source and electrode. In addition, the gas temperature increased about 150 K during the glow-like discharge, which causes further energy loss in plasma processing. Consequently, the decision became to remove the glow-like phase and only having the streamer discharge. A nano-seconds pulsed power generator was developed and the observed discharge plasma has the streamer phase only. Furthermore, its application of ozone generation showed highest energy efficiency than other discharge methods.