Characterization of dielectric barrier discharge pulse plasma jet in neon at atmospheric pressure

A dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma jet source is presented, which is low-cost and small in size, fed with neon and driven by the a self-developed microsecond pulse power supply with a peak voltage of 0-35 kV and a frequency of 1 kHz. Influences of applied voltage amplitude and gas flow rate on the discharge characteristics of the plasma jet are studied by measuring the waveforms of voltage and current, taking the light emission images and measuring the optical emission spectra. Results show that, the DBD in neon at atmospheric pressure driven by a microsecond pulse voltage can generate a cone-shaped flaming plasma jet, and the intensity of plasma is moderate. The fast rise of the applied pulse voltage can apply a higher overvoltage instantly to the gas gap, and thus can promotes the increases of discharge power, electron density and excitation temperature efficiently; while the increase of gas flow rate results in the decrease of these parameters but little variation of the jet length. Under certain operating conditions, the plasma jet with long length can be generated.