Surface charge transport and decay in dielectric barrier discharges

In this work, we investigate the decay of electric charge that remains after the extinction of a barrier discharge on top of a dielectric surface. The amount of surface charge is determined spatially and temporally resolved via the Pockels effect of a BSO crystal. It is shown that the decay of charge is performed by two different processes. One channel of decay can be identified as the photoconductivity of the BSO crystal. The other decay channel is found to depend on the polarity of charge and the working gas parameters. For an inhomogeneous surface charge distribution, charge transport on the crystal surface has been observed. It takes place on a time scale of several seconds.