Transverse Stabilization of Atmospheric-Pressure DC Glow Plasma in Air With Resistive Barrier

Atmospheric-pressure glow plasmas in air or other gases are attractive for industrial plasma processing, but attempts to obtain large-volume plasmas are plagued with filamentation due to transverse plasma instability. A method to prevent transverse instability of DC glow discharges using a resistive barrier is presented. Experimental data on current-voltage characteristics, light intensity versus time, and quantitative striation measurements indicate that the plasma is a true DC glow discharge which shows some longitudinal instability, but is transversely stabilized by a barrier with resistivity in the 10⁴-10⁶ Ω-m range. A finite-element model of the discharge´s electric field elucidates the mechanism of transverse stabilization.