Evidence of a new form of self-organization in DBD Plasmas: the quincunx structure

• Published in: Journal of physics. D, Applied physics Applied physics, 2011-07, Vol.44 (26), p.262002
• Main Authors: Bernecker, B, Callegari, T, Boeuf, J P
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electric discharges; Engineering Sciences; Exact sciences and technology; Other gas discharges; Physics; Physics of gases, plasmas and electric discharges; Physics of plasmas and electric discharges
• ISSN: 0022-3727; 1361-6463
• DOI: 10.1088/0022-3727/44/26/262002

Self-organized, stable or dynamic, filamentary structures are known to form in dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) operating in a glow regime. The common ‘classical’ understanding of stable filamentary structures in DBDs is that a glow-discharge filament forms at each half cycle of the sinusoidal applied voltage at the same spatial location along the dielectric surface. The ‘memory’ charges deposited by the previous filament on the dielectric surfaces are responsible for the ignition of a new discharge at the same location. On the other hand, the formation of a filamentary discharge at a given location inhibits discharge development in its vicinity because of charge spreading along the dielectric surface leading to a decrease in the gap voltage in this region. In this paper we show using experiments and models that another self-organized filamentary regime is possible and coexists with the ‘classical’ regime. In this regime, never reported before, discharge filaments at successive half cycles do not occur at the same location but are shifted by half a spatial period. We call this regime the ‘quincunx’ regime. We also show that the mechanisms of this regime may be responsible for some dynamical aspects of self-organization in DBDs.