Effect of Pulse Rise Time on the Glow Discharge in Nonuniform Electric Field

Nanosecond single pulses with varying rise times and a fixed pulsewidth of 200 ns were used to generate pulsed glow discharges in the line-plane gap with air pressure in the range of 5.2-20 kPa. With the increase of gas pressure or pulse rise time, the pulsed glow discharge appears the transition from the diffuse mode to the discrete mode. Images presented here show that a large-volume diffuse pulsed glow discharge requires fast rising of the applied pulses; the higher the air pressure, the faster the required rising rate.