Spatiotemporal profile of emission from oscillating dc micro discharges

TL;DR

This paper investigates the spatiotemporal emission profiles of oscillating dc microdischarges in argon, revealing oscillation behaviors, hysteresis in voltage-current characteristics, and movement of emission peaks towards the cathode.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the oscillation regimes and emission dynamics of microdischarges, highlighting behaviors similar to larger discharges but at micro scales.

Findings

Oscillations occur between Townsend and glow modes.

Hysteresis observed in Volt-Ampere characteristics.

Emission peaks move closer to the cathode during oscillations.

Abstract

The axial light distributions in parallel-plate dc microdischarges in argon show similar behavior to large scale discharges. Between the low-current Townsend mode and the high current glow mode exists a large region of currents where different oscillations appear and the dynamic Volt-Ampere characteristic shows hysteresis behavior. During the oscillations the maximum peak intensity moves closer to the cathode, which is characteristic for the abnormal glow regime even though the average current is considerably smaller.