Influence of voltage pulse width on the discharge characteristics in an atmospheric dielectric-barrier-discharge plasma jet

We present here the analysis of the discharge characteristics of a He dielectric-barrier-discharge (DBD) plasma jet operated in the voltage duty ratio of 20 to 80% under the condition of driving voltage frequency 5 kHz. Discharge strength is sensitive to the voltage pulse width, and the pulse width of 70 mu s, which corresponds to the duty ratio of 35%, leads to high O optical emission intensity. We also performed time-resolved optical emission measurements in a transient pulse discharge driven by various voltage duty ratios. Two distinct pulse discharges are observed in the rising and falling periods of the positive rectangular voltage, and the first and second discharges have a peak intensity of optical emission at different duty ratio. The observations indicate that an adequate voltage pulse width could ignite a strong discharge both in the rising and falling period of applied voltage, which could produce a large amount of reactive excited O atoms. (C) 2016 The Japan Society of Applied Physics