Identification of the different diffuse dielectric barrier discharges obtained between 50 kHz to 9MHz in Ar/NH3 at atmospheric pressure

The aim of this work was to identify the different diffuse dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) obtained in the same electrode configuration and in the same gas for an excitation frequency ranging from 50 kHz to 9 MHz. The gas mixture was argon with 133 ppm of NH3. This Penning mixture is useful to obtain both low-frequency glow DBDs (GDBDs) and diffuse radio-frequency (RF) discharges. Electrical measurements and short exposure time photographs showed that whatever the frequency, a discharge free of micro-discharge was obtained. In the same configuration, the discharge was a GDBD up to 200 kHz. For frequencies higher than 250 kHz, the discharge behavior was that of a Townsend-like discharge associated with a maximum energy transfer close to the anode and a higher power ( about twice that of the GDBD). The cathode fall formation was no longer observed during the discharge current increase because of ion trapping in the gas gap by the rapid electric field oscillations. In the same configuration, the alpha RF mode was observed from 1.3 MHz. Gamma secondary electron emission gave way to electron acceleration by the cathode sheath formation. Bulk ionization was important due to the high electron collision rate at atmospheric pressure. One consequence of the transition from low-frequency to high-frequency discharge was a significant increase in the power (factor approximate to 30), which reached 35Wcm(-3), while the breakdown voltage decreased from 900V to less than 200V.