Temporally resolved optical emission spectroscopic investigations on a nanosecond self-pulsing micro-thin-cathode discharge

At atmospheric pressure in Ar, a micro-thin-cathode discharge operates in a self-pulsing mode due to periodic ignition of a nanosecond spark discharge with a long living afterglow (several hundred nanoseconds). In this mode, optical emission spectra of the nanosecond spark and the afterglow are investigated. The electron density and temperature in the pure Ar discharge are measured by the Stark broadening and shift of the Ar 3p(6) -> 1s(5) transition (415.859 nm). The nanosecond spark has an electron density of the order of 10(17) cm(-3) and an electron temperature of 5 eV. The gas temperature is obtained by analyzing the emission spectra of the N-2 second positive system with an admixture of 0.5% N-2. The measured gas temperature agrees very well with the result of a zero-dimensional kinetic simulation. The temporal development of the spatial distribution of separate emission lines shows that not only the nanosecond spark but the afterglow is also strongly localized. The temporal development of the emission spectrum provides powerful proof that the nanosecond spark discharge, due to thermionic emission, occurs in the self-pulsing mode with nanosecond current peaks.