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Electric Field Measurements to Investigate Sheath Formation in a Nanosecond Pulsed Discharge

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:1923970
 [1]
  1. Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States); University of Minnesota
The objective of the research was to study the temporally and spatially resolved dynamics of sheath formation in a nanosecond pulsed plasma generated in a parallel plate electrode geometry at near atmospheric pressures. We have performed LIF dip measurements at the Sandia Low-Temperature Plasma Research Facility showing the capability to measure electric fields in near atmospheric pressure plasmas although with insufficient spatial resolution near the electrodes. Stark polarization spectroscopy implemented at the University of Minnesota was shown to be able to probe the formation of the sheaths in nanosecond pulsed plasmas. Within 30 ns, a reduction of the sheath thickness to about 250 μm is observed, coinciding with a gradual increase of the discharge current and proportional increase in electric field at the cathode. The electric field evolution as obtained by the fluid model is in excellent agreement with the measurements and shows that an enhanced ionization near the cathode is causing the space charge formation responsible for the increase in electric field. High resolution Stark polarization spectroscopy showed sheaths with dimensions of the order of 50 μm underlining the need of micrometer spatial resolution for sheath characterization in near atmospheric pressure.
Research Organization:
Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
DOE Contract Number:
SC0021376
OSTI ID:
1923970
Report Number(s):
DOE-MINNESOTA--21376
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (1)

Townsend to glow discharge transition for a nanosecond pulse plasma in helium: space charge formation and resulting electric field dynamics journal May 2021

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