Influence of Driving Frequency on the Argon Dielectric Barrier Discharge Excited by Gaussian Voltage at Atmospheric Pressure

A 1-D self-consistent fluid model was employed to investigate the effect of driving frequency on the discharge characters of a dielectric barrier discharge at atmospheric pressure in argon excited by a periodic Gaussian voltage. The simulation results indicate that there are two discharge modes: 1) Townsend and 2) glow modes in the multipulse discharge and different transitions between them during the discharge take place with the increase in driving frequency. When the driving frequency is 1 kHz, there is a tendency of transition from the Townsend mode through glow and finally back to the Townsend one during the positive half-circle of applied Gaussian voltage. However, the discharge in the half-circle can all along operate in the glow mode with the higher driving frequency. Moreover, when the driving frequency is sufficiently high, there are also distinct fluctuations of spatial performance of the charge densities in the positive column during the glow discharge. This is caused by the fact that a lot of charged particles created in the gas gap have not enough time to drift and diffuse to the dielectric barriers, and then these particles are preserved in the local discharge gap at such a high frequency. A comparison of the spatial and temporal evolutions of the electron density at different driving frequencies indicates that the increase in the driving frequency can enhance the plasma chemistry and also expand its volume.