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Title: Effect of surface protrusion on plasma sheath properties in atmospheric microdischarges

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5011768· OSTI ID:1514893
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1];  [3];  [4]
  1. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Dept. of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering; Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
  2. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
  3. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Dept. of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering; Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Dept. of Mathematics
  4. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China). Dept. of Electrical Engineering

The electric field enhancement due to the presence of cathode surface protrusion is investigated in atmospheric microdischarges with the goal of identifying the plasma sheath properties (such as cathode sheath thickness and electric field distortion). The electric field enhancement caused by surface protrusion is examined by adjusting the aspect ratio and the protrusion size. It is found that the cathode electric field enhancement depends strongly (weakly) on the aspect ratio (size) of the protrusion when it is much smaller than the discharge gap distance. In particular, the axial electric field in both vacuum and discharges becomes nonlinear with the protrusion on the cathode. The cathode sheath thicknesses obtained by two different methods are compared. With the same axial (or radial) protrusion dimension, increasing the aspect ratio will result in a significant decrease in the sheath thickness, whereas increasing the axial protrusion size with an unchanged aspect ratio will only lead to a slight decrease in the sheath thickness. The results contribute to predicting the relative plasma sheath properties from the geometrical parameter of the surface protrusion in atmospheric microdischarges.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0001939; FA9550-14-1-0309; FA9550-18-1-0061
OSTI ID:
1514893
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1418411
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 1; ISSN 1070-664X
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 16 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (7)

Gas breakdown in atmospheric pressure microgaps with a surface protrusion on the cathode journal June 2018
Paschen's curve in microgaps with an electrode surface protrusion journal July 2018
Gas breakdown and its scaling law in microgaps with multiple concentric cathode protrusions journal January 2019
The effect of photoemission on nanosecond helium microdischarges at atmospheric pressure journal May 2018
Understanding the chemical reactions in cathodic plasma electrolysis journal August 2019
Streamer breakdown: cathode spot formation, Trichel pulses and cathode-sheath instabilities journal January 2020
Electrical breakdown from macro to micro/nano scales: a tutorial and a review of the state of the art journal February 2020

Figures / Tables (8)


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