Hysteresis characteristics of the initiating and extinguishing boundaries in a nanosecond pulsed DBD

Abstract

The dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is presently used in many fields, including plasma medicine, surface modification, and ozone synthesis; the influence of airflow on the DBD is a widely investigated topic. In this work, a hysteresis characteristic on the initiating and extinguishing boundaries is observed in a nanosecond pulsed DBD, which is sensitive to the variation in the airflow velocities and pulse repetition frequencies (PRFs). It is found that, at a certain airflow velocity, the initiating PRF is higher than the extinguishing PRF. This difference between the initiating PRF and the extinguishing PRF leads to a hysteresis phenomenon on the initiating and extinguishing boundaries. When the airflow velocity is increased, both the initiating and extinguishing PRFs are increased and the difference between the initiating PRF and the extinguishing PRF also increased. The hysteresis width between the initiating and extinguishing boundaries is enhanced. To explain these results, the physical processes involved with the seed particles and the mechanisms of forming discharge channels are discussed.