Phase resolved cross-correlation spectroscopy on surface barrier discharges in air at atmospheric pressure

Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology, Felix-Hausdorff-Str. 2, 17489 Greifswald, Germany

^a e-mail: brandenburg@inp-greifswald.de

Received: 3 December 2010
Revised: 2 May 2011
Accepted: 11 May 2011
Published online: 21 July 2011

Abstract

Microdischarges in a surface barrier discharge with special asymmetric needle-needle arrangement were investigated by means of cross-correlation spectroscopy (with sub-ns and sub-mm resolution) and an intensified CCD camera equipped with a far field microscope. The surface barrier discharge was driven at conditions (overvoltage) resulting in several microdischarges per half period of the applied sinusoidal voltage. At these conditions and in this arrangement regular patterns of microdischarges between the two electrodes points are formed due to local charging of the dielectric surface. The cross-correlation spectroscopy setup enables the recording of microdischarge development for different phases of the applied voltage. Distinct differences in the microdischarge development between the subsequent phase channels in the positive half period can be observed, while the first channel shows similar behavior as in the single-microdischarge mode which was conducted recently.