[Study on stable process of hexagon pattern in dielectric barrier discharge by optical emission spectra]

The effect of plasma parameters and excited states on the stable process of the hexagon pattern in a dielectric barrier discharge was studied by using optical emission spectra. It was found that the diameter of the discharge filament increases, the pattern gets more stable, and the color of the pattern changes from purple to gray with the increase in the voltage in dielectric barrier discharge in argon and air mixture. It indicates that the plasma excited states and parameters may be changed. To this end, the relative intensity of N2 and Ar spectral lines with respect to Ar I 763.51 nm, the molecular vibration temperature, and the electron excitation temperature were measured with the change in the applied voltage. The results show that the relative intensity of N2 spectral lines decreases and that of Ar spectral lines increases with the increase in the voltage. And both the molecular vibration temperature and the electron excitation temperature increase. These phenomena indicate that the electron energy increases with the increase in the voltage. The increase of the stimulated argon atoms excited by higher energy electron leads to the increase in the diameters of the discharge filaments. Correspondingly, the areas of the wall charges deposited on the dielectric increase, which results in the enhancement of the interactions between filaments, and therefore the hexagon pattern becomes stable.