Distinction Between Streamer to Glow Transition in Atmospheric Discharge using Optical Emission Spectroscopy

Summary form only given. Generally to generate glow discharge in air, sufficient numbers of seed electrons or metastables are needed. But by electronegative gases such as oxygen and water vapor etc, atmospheric discharge exists as streamer, non-uniform microdischarges. As mentioned by other references, the parameter Ptimesd in dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) controls electrical breakdown. At high gas pressure, two types of breakdown mechanisms can occur. One is called Townsend breakdown at low Ptimesd and the other breakdown is termed streamer breakdown at high Ptimesd. Therefore, we investigated optimum streamer-to-glow transition Ptimesd by controlling pressure. And to find transition Ptimesd condition, we compared the relative intensities of generated species at each discharge mode during discharge by optical emission spectroscopy analysis. Experimental results show that in case of DBD using alumina with 1 mm thickness streamer-to-glow transition occurred at the 1 torrmiddotcm condition.