Electrical and Optical Properties of a Radio-Frequency Atmospheric Pressure Dielectric-Barrier Discharge in Argon and Argon-Oxygen Gases

Summary form only given. While dielectric barriers are not essential for the generation of radio-frequency atmospheric glow discharges, they have been shown recently to be effective for sustaining radiofrequency atmospheric plasmas in regimes of large discharge currents. In this contribution, we present results of an experimental study of a radio-frequency dielectric barrier discharge generated in atmospheric argon and also atmospheric argon-oxygen mixture. This study is based on (1) voltage and current measurement; (2) nanosecond imaging: (3) optical emission spectroscopy. It is shown that the use of dielectric barriers allow argon atmospheric plasmas to operate in large discharge current in the gamma-mode without plasma constriction.