Experimental Study of Low-Pressure Nitrogen Dielectric Barrier Discharge

The electrical and spectral characteristics of a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) are experimentally investigated in a sealed off coaxial cylinder filled with nitrogen at a pressure of 10 mbar. The discharge is a transient diffused glow at low frequency alternating voltage (60 Hz) and changes to a filamentary mode at high frequency alternating voltage (35 kHz). In case of pulsed voltage, the discharge is always transient diffused glow at any frequency. The intensity of a second positive system (SPS) of the nitrogen molecule has been also measured to characterize the discharge excitation. The effective vibrational temperature is estimated from the SPS vibrational band, ∆v = −2. It is concluded that the intensity of the SPS of the nitrogen and the effective vibrational temperature depends upon the reduced electric field and the energy consumed per cycle by the device.