https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2007-00168-7
Formation and stabilisation of single current filaments in planar dielectric barrier discharge
1
Institut für Angewandte Physik, Corrensstraße 2/4, 48149 Münster, Germany
2
CPAT, Université Paul Sabatier, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
Corresponding author: a stollenw@uni-muenster.de
Received:
15
December
2006
Revised:
13
April
2007
Published online:
23
May
2007
In the experimental part we report on a typical bifurcation scenario
of the current distribution in the discharge plane of a planar
dielectric barrier discharge system. Increasing the amplitude 
of the sinusoidal driving voltage after breakdown a large number of
dynamic solitary filaments is observed and the subsequent decrease of
results in a pronounced hysteresis with decreasing number of
filaments. In this way isolated single stationary filaments can be
generated. In the theoretical part the latter are modeled by a
reaction-drift-diffusion equation that is solved in three dimensional
space numerically without any fitting procedure. As a result we obtain
well defined stationary filaments of which size an shape essentially
are independent of the initial conditions and having a width and an
amplitude that agree with experiment rather well. On the basis of the
numerical results we consider mechanisms of filament stabilisation.
This includes the discussion of the well known surface charges as well
as an additional focusing effect of volume charges.
PACS: 52.65.-y – Plasma simulation / 52.80.Hc – Glow; corona / 89.75.Kd – Patterns / 89.75.Fb – Structures and organization in complex systems
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2007
