Surface corona-bar discharges for production of pre-ionizing UV light for pulsed high-pressure plasmas

Multi-atmospheric pressure, pulsed electric discharge excited lasers require pre-ionization to produce spatially uniform glows. Many such systems use corona bars to produce ultraviolet (UV) and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light as photo-ionization sources for this purpose. Corona bars are transient surface discharges, typically in a cylindrical geometry, that sustain high electron temperatures and so are efficient UV and VUV sources. In this paper, results from a numerical study of surface corona-bar discharges in a multi-atmosphere pressure Ne/Xe gas mixture are discussed. The discharge consists of a high-voltage electrode placed on the surface of a corona bar which is a dielectric tube surrounding a cylindrical metal electrode. After the initial breakdown an ionization front propagates along the circumference of the corona bar and produces a thin plasma sheet near the dielectric surface. The propagation speed of the ionization front ranges from 2 × 107 to 3.5× 108 cm s−1, depending on the applied voltage and dielectric constant of the corona-bar insulator. As the discharge propagates around the circumference, the surface of the corona-bar is charged. The combined effects of surface curvature and charge deposition result in a non-monotonic variation of the electric field and electron temperature as the ionization front traverses the circumference. The UV fluxes collected on a surrounding circular surface correlate with the motion of the ionization front but with a time delay due to the relatively long lifetime of the precursor to the emitting species Ne2.