The resistive barrier discharge (RBD)

Summary form only given, as follows. Non-equilibrium, atmospheric pressure plasma discharges are increasingly being used in various novel applications. In many of these applications, a non-thermal, large volume, atmospheric pressure discharge which can be generated in a practical and economical way is sought. In this context, we present a novel method to produce such a plasma. This method is somehow similar to the dielectric barrier discharge scheme. However, instead of a having a dielectric covering the electrodes, we use a resistive layer to cover at least one of the electrodes. This allows us to operate the discharge with either a DC or an AC source. Using DC or AC (60 Hz) power supplies to drive the electrodes, and helium as the ambient gas we were able to generate large volumes (up to few liters) of plasma. The input power was up to 300 watts. The non-equilibrium plasma generated by this method appears to be diffuse, and uniformly fills the entire volume between the electrodes. The gap between the electrodes is adjustable, and we were able to generate a plasma with gap distances up to 15 cm. In this paper, we report on the current-voltage characteristics of the RBD discharge. In addition, using a photomultiplier tube (PMT), the light emission of the discharge is measured and the PMT signal is correlated with the discharge current signal. Our experiments show that although the discharge is run with a DC voltage, the current signal exhibits a pulsed form with pulses few microseconds wide at a repetition rate of few kHz.