Poling of Glasses Using Resistive Barrier Discharge Plasma

A technique for poling of glasses using a resistive barrier discharge plasma in the atmosphere in a gap of hundreds of microns is presented. Measurements of the polarization current, second harmonic generation, and IR spectra of poled soda-lime glass slides show that voltage sufficient to ignite plasma discharge provides efficient poling, whereas for lower voltages the poling effect is close to zero. We attributed this to the large number of hydrogen/hydronium ions generated from atmospheric water vapor by the plasma discharge in the gap, which penetrate into the glass. We also developed a simple model of poling according to Ohm's law, analyzed the temporal dependencies of the polarization current and, basing on the model, estimated mobilities of hydrogen/hydronium and sodium ions in the glass: μ_H = (2.4 ± 0.8) × 10^-18 m²V^-1s^-1 and μ_Na = (4.8 ± 1.8) × 10^-15 m²V^-1s^-1. The values obtained are very close to the known literature data.