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

Abstract

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.

Authors:
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
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
OSTI Identifier:
1514893
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1418411
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0001939; FA9550-14-1-0309; FA9550-18-1-0061
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physics of Plasmas
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 25; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1070-664X
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY

Citation Formats

Fu, Yangyang, Zhang, Peng, Verboncoeur, John P., Christlieb, Andrew J., and Wang, Xinxin. Effect of surface protrusion on plasma sheath properties in atmospheric microdischarges. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1063/1.5011768.
Fu, Yangyang, Zhang, Peng, Verboncoeur, John P., Christlieb, Andrew J., & Wang, Xinxin. Effect of surface protrusion on plasma sheath properties in atmospheric microdischarges. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5011768
Fu, Yangyang, Zhang, Peng, Verboncoeur, John P., Christlieb, Andrew J., and Wang, Xinxin. Mon . "Effect of surface protrusion on plasma sheath properties in atmospheric microdischarges". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5011768. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1514893.
@article{osti_1514893,
title = {Effect of surface protrusion on plasma sheath properties in atmospheric microdischarges},
author = {Fu, Yangyang and Zhang, Peng and Verboncoeur, John P. and Christlieb, Andrew J. and Wang, Xinxin},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1063/1.5011768},
journal = {Physics of Plasmas},
number = 1,
volume = 25,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jan 29 00:00:00 EST 2018},
month = {Mon Jan 29 00:00:00 EST 2018}
}

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Cited by: 16 works
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Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: Schematic of the simulation setup: (a) the micro-discharge gap with an external DC circuit where Rb is the ballast resistor; (b) geometry of the surface protrusion; and (c) three groups (A: A1–A4, B: B1–B4, and C: C1–C4) of the designed protrusions.

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Gas breakdown in atmospheric pressure microgaps with a surface protrusion on the cathode
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