Generation of a diffuse brush-shaped plasma plume using a dielectric barrier discharge at atmospheric pressure

With argon used as working gas, a barrier discharge device composed of two diverging wire electrodes is developed to generate a diffuse brush-shaped plasma plume outside a wedged gap. The parameter range for plume generation and its discharge characteristics are studied through electrical and optical methods. The spatial and temporal evolution is implemented by fast photography to investigate the formation mechanism of the plume. At a lower voltage, it is found that the large-scale plume is a superposition of micro-discharge filaments gliding along the argon flow direction, which operate in a glow discharge regime. However, streamer-discharge branches appear stochastically on the gliding micro-discharge filaments under an overvoltage. Results also indicate that the plasma is in a non-equilibrium condition.