Streamer dynamics and periodical discharge regime transitions under repetitive nanosecond pulses with airflow

Although the nanosecond repetitively pulsed (NRP) discharge normally stabilizes into one of three regimes (corona/glow/spark) in a pulse train, another nonintuitive instability recently proved that it could periodically swing between corona and spark regimes characterized by repeated spark quenches and reestablishments (Zhao et al 2022 Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 31 045005). In this paper, we have further investigated the suitability of NRP discharge regime transitions for different pulsed power supplies and revealed dramatic effects of the gas flow on streamer dynamics that possibly lead to spark quenches. Pulse-sequence and temporally resolved electrical and optical diagnostics were implemented to capture discharge evolutions in long pulse trains. Periodical discharge regime transitions under long-term repetitive nanosecond pulses are prevalent under a transmission line transformer pulser and a commercially available FID pulser with parameter constraints. A minimum deposited energy per spark is required for the successive spark pattern. The spark channel before its quench statistically prefers to deviate upstream rather than following the straight axis or intuitively bending downstream to search for more remnants. Before spark quenches, the initial streamer already either exhibits a large radial 'detour' or propagates with a zig-zag profile along the periphery of previous spark regions. The periodical discharge regime transition and effects of the gas flow are qualitatively explained based on the plasma-source coupling, evolutions of dominant negative ion composition, and 3D streamer simulation. Periodical NRP spark quenches are probably initiated with the streamer 'detour' and then accelerated by the thermal-ionization feedback instability. Inhomogeneous residual charge distribution and accumulations of complex negative ions with high electron bound energies may facilitate the following discharge to search for the gas inlet. In-depth understanding of NRP discharge instabilities could be reached, which are fundamentally governed by residual charge transport and energy relaxation.