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Influence of surface emission processes on a fast-pulsed dielectric barrier discharge in air at atmospheric pressure

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Published 14 June 2016 © 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd
, , Special Issue on Fast Pulsed Discharges Citation François Pechereau et al 2016 Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 25 044004 DOI 10.1088/0963-0252/25/4/044004

0963-0252/25/4/044004

Abstract

This paper presents simulations of an atmospheric pressure air discharge in a point-to-plane geometry with a dielectric layer parallel to the cathode plane. Experimentally, a discharge reignition in the air gap below the dielectrics has been observed. With a 2D fluid model, it is shown that due to the fast rise of the high voltage applied and the sharp point used, a first positive spherical discharge forms around the point. Then this discharge propagates axially and impacts the dielectrics. As the first discharge starts spreading on the upper dielectric surface, in the second air gap with a low preionization density of ${{10}^{4}}~\text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-3}}$ , the 2D fluid model predicts a rapid reignition of a positive discharge. As in experiments, the discharge reignition is much slower, a discussion on physical processes to be considered in the model to increase the reignition delay is presented. The limit case with no initial seed charges in the second air gap has been studied. First, we have calculated the time to release an electron from the cathode surface by thermionic and field emission processes for a work function $\phi \in \left[3,4\right]$ eV and an amplification factor $\beta \in \left[100,220\right]$ . Then a 3D Monte Carlo model has been used to follow the dynamics of formation of an avalanche starting from a single electron emitted at the cathode. Due to the high electric field in the second air gap, we have shown that in a few nanoseconds, a Gaussian cloud of seed charges is formed at a small distance from the cathode plane. This Gaussian cloud has been used as the initial condition of the 2D fluid model in the second air gap. In this case, the propagation of a double headed discharge in the second air gap has been observed and the reignition delay is in rather good agreement with experiments.

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1. Introduction

In air at atmospheric pressure, in a point to plane geometry, streamer discharges are well known to branch easily in experiments (Briels et al 2008, Tardiveau et al 2009). In simulations (Babaeva and Naidis 1996), it was shown that as the applied voltage increases, the radii and propagation velocities of streamers increase. To observe streamer discharge ignition at high voltages in a point to plane geometry (larger than the minimal voltage for streamer ignition in the studied geometry), it is necessary to apply high voltage pulses with a steep rise front. In recent years, with the developments of both power supplies and diagnostic techniques, a number of experiments (Baksht et al 2009, Tardiveau et al 2009, Starikovskiy 2011, Yatom et al 2011, Le Delliou 2014, Chen et al 2015) have been performed to study the discharges obtained using high voltage pulses with subnanosecond rise fronts. As an example, in Tardiveau et al (2009) and Le Delliou (2014) it was shown that in air at atmospheric pressure in a point to plane geometry, when the fast rise applied voltage is sufficiently high, the discharge ignites near the sharp point electrode as a rather spherical discharge, and then propagates in the gap with a large and stable conical structure without branching. In Pechereau et al (2014), fluid simulations of this conical discharge have been carried out and a good quantitative agreement with experiments on the discharge structure, velocity and optical emission was found.

In the future, these large discharges could be of great interest for applications where a large discharge volume is required for pollution control or plasma assisted ignition and combustion. From a fundamental point of view, these stable discharges allow detailed experimental studies to be carried out to challenge current discharge models, for example on the interaction of atmospheric pressure discharge with dielectrics. Atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharges are extensively used for various applications as biomedical treatment and thin film coatings (Massines et al 2012). However, there are still few detailed combined experimental and numerical studies on the dynamics of dielectric barrier discharges in air at atmospheric pressure. In Le Delliou (2014), a detailed experimental study has been carried out in a point to plane geometry with a dielectric layer obstacle on the discharge path. In our previous numerical works (Pechereau et al 2012, Pechereau and Bourdon 2014), we studied a similar geometry, but with many small differences in the geometry and the applied voltage. Therefore only a qualitative comparison with experiments could be done. In the present work, we consider a discharge set-up as close as possible to the final set-up used in the experiments in Le Delliou (2014) to compare experimental and numerical results on the dynamics on the discharge reignition below the dielectric obstacle.

In section 2, we present the studied discharge set-up and the 2D fluid model used. In section 3 we discuss the experimental results used for comparison with simulations. In section 4 we discuss the comparison between experimental and numerical results. In particular in section 4.3, to improve the experiment/modeling agreement, we study the influence of emission processes at the cathode surface on the reignition dynamics. In section 4.4 we use a Monte Carlo model to follow the dynamics of the formation of an avalanche in a high electric field, starting from a single electron emitted at the cathode. Finally, in section 4.5, results from the Monte Carlo simulations are used as initial conditions of the fluid model presented in section 2 to simulate the discharge reignition dynamics in the second air gap.

2. Fluid model formulation

The geometry of the set-up used for the numerical simulations is close to the set-up used in the experiments at LPGP and is shown in figure 1. The anode is a $500~\mu $ m needle point ended with a tip with a radius of curvature of $50~\mu $ m. The cathode plane (x  =  0 cm) is located 1 cm from the tip of the anode and a dielectric layer obstacle is positioned between both electrodes. In our previous numerical works (Pechereau et al 2012, Pechereau and Bourdon 2014), the interelectrode gap was only 5 mm and the point electrode was blunt with a radius of curvature of $650~\mu $ m. In Pechereau et al (2012), we have varied the thickness $\Delta $ of the dielectric layer, the axial location of its upper surface xdiel and its permittivity ${{\varepsilon}_{\text{r}}}$ for a constant positive voltage of 13 kV applied at the point electrode at the beginning of the discharge simulation. In Pechereau and Bourdon (2014), for fixed values of $\Delta $ , xdiel and ${{\varepsilon}_{\text{r}}}$ we have varied the constant applied voltage in the range 13–18 kV for positive polarity and from  −9 to  −15 kV for negative polarity. In this work, we compare numerical results with the experiments carried out for a dielectric layer obstacle of thickness $\Delta =1$ mm and relative permittivity ${{\varepsilon}_{\text{r}}}=2.2$ and located at ${{x}_{\text{diel}}}=0.5$ cm. The power supply used in experiments delivers to the point electrode a positive high voltage rectangular pulse of about 20 ns duration with rise and fall times equal to 2 ns. The maximum applied voltage can range between 16 and 33 kV. To be close to experiments, we have modelled the shape of the voltage pulse with a sigmoid function, shown in figure 2, with a steep rise in ${{T}_{\text{r}}}=2$ ns of the applied voltage ${{U}_{\text{a}}}(t)$ and then a voltage plateau of ${{T}_{\text{pl}}}=24$ ns with a maximum applied voltage of ${{U}_{\text{max}}}=30$ kV:

Equation (1)

with B  =  100 V, $C=8/{{T}_{\text{r}}}~{{\text{s}}^{-1}}$ and D  =  10−9 s. In the following sections, we simulate the discharge dynamics until ${{t}_{\text{simu}}}=24$ ns at the end of the voltage plateau and discuss the discharge dynamics obtained before the voltage decrease. In experiments, no gas heating has been observed and therefore we have neglected it in the simulations presented in this work. Simulations of the gas heating in air pulsed discharges have been carried out for example in Papadakis et al (2005), Breden and Raja (2012), Papadakis (2012), Tholin and Bourdon (2013a) and Komuro and Ono (2014).

Figure 1.

Figure 1. Side view schematics of the discharge set-up.

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Figure 2.

Figure 2. Applied potential Ua at the point electrode.

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As in our previous works (Pechereau et al 2012, Pechereau and Bourdon 2014), a classical fluid model based on continuity equations for electrons, positive and negative ions coupled with Poisson's equation is used to simulate the atmospheric pressure air discharge propagation in cylindrical coordinates (x, r). We use a finite volume approach and a cartesian mesh. Surface charges on the dielectric surfaces are obtained by time integrating charged particle fluxes to the surfaces. Details on this time integration and on the calculation of voltages at the air-dielectric interfaces are given in Pechereau (2013).

The computational domain is $2~\text{cm}\times 7~\text{cm}$ . In the following, we present discharge results on 1D and 2D figures on smaller domains centered on the symmetry axis. For $0\leqslant x\leqslant 1$ cm, an axial mesh size of $10~\mu $ m is used and is refined to $1~\mu $ m close to the anode tip and close to the air/dielectric interfaces. Then for $1\leqslant x\leqslant 2$ cm, the mesh size is increased from $1~\mu $ m to $30~\mu $ m. Radially, for $r\leqslant 0.5$ cm, a mesh size of $5~\mu $ m is used and is refined to $1~\mu $ m close to the axis of symmetry. For $0.5\leqslant r\leqslant 2$ cm, the radial mesh size is increased from $5~\mu $ m to $30~\mu $ m. This level of refinement requires a cartesian mesh of ${{n}_{x}}\times {{n}_{r}}=3062~\times ~2400$ points. The code used for this work is mainly the OPENMP-MPI parallelized version with domain decomposition of the code used in Pechereau et al (2012) and Pechereau and Bourdon (2014). A detailed analysis of the parallel code performance is beyond the scope of this paper and will be presented in a separate dedicated paper. However, it is interesting to mention, that to solve Poisson's equation and Poisson type equations for the photoionization source term we have implemented the iterative solver SMG from the Hypre (2007) library which allowed us to speed up calculations significantly. For the drift fluxes a 3rd order in time and space UNO3 scheme is used with a 2nd order in time and space explicit scheme for the diffusion fluxes. For the time integration of source terms, an explicit 4th order Runge–Kutta scheme is used. Further details on the numerical schemes and other characteristics of the simulations (boundary conditions, transport parameters, source terms, and time-step calculation) are presented in detail in Pechereau (2013). The average computational time that was required for a simulation run to obtain results presented in this paper are of half a day with 160 MPI processes on a multicore cluster. The cores are bi-socket SandyBridge with a frequency of 2.6 GHz and the average RAM needed per simulation is of 120 GiB.

3. Experimental results used for comparison with simulations

In the experiments at LPGP, different dielectric layers have been used (e.g. glass, alumina, different polymers) and the influence on the reignition dynamics of their location in the inter-electrode gap xdiel and their thickness $\Delta $ was investigated. The detailed presentation of all experimental results is beyond the scope of this paper and can be found in Le Delliou (2014).

Compared to the simulated geometry (figure 1), in the experiments, around the point electrode, a large dielectric ring is used to hold the dielectric layer in the inter-electrode gap and the whole set-up is placed in a closed cylindrical reactor with optical windows. Furthermore, the cathode is segmented and discharge currents are measured on its different metallic rings. In coupling these current measurements with images taken with a high speed 14 bits ICCD camera (4 Picos stanford computer optics) Le Delliou (2014) has measured the reignition delay $\Delta t_{\text{delay}}^{\text{exp}}$ (i.e. delay between the ignition of the first discharge at the point anode and the impact of the reignited discharge on the cathode surface). It is important to point out that for the results used in this work, the experiments are single shot and all surfaces of the reactor are grounded between successive experiments in order to remove residual surface charges.

Among all the experimental results obtained in Le Delliou (2014), we have noticed that when the dielectric layer thickness increases from 50 μm to 1 mm, the reignited discharge is more centered on the axis of symmetry. To be able to compare the results of the 2D axi-symmetric fluid model with experiments, we have decided to simulate the experiments carried out with a 1 mm thick dielectric layer. In Le Delliou (2014), these experiments have been performed with a dielectric layer of Topas cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) resin (relative permittivity ${{\varepsilon}_{\text{r}}}=2.2$ ) with ${{x}_{\text{diel}}}=0.5$ cm as shown in figure 1. For an applied voltage with a plateau at 30 kV, the measured experimental reignition delay is $\Delta t_{\text{delay}}^{\text{exp}}~\in \left[18,22\right]$ ns.

4. Numerical results and comparison with experimental results

4.1. Reference simulation of the reignition dynamics considering a low and uniform preionization of air

To compare with experimental results, first we have carried out simulations with the same initial condition as in previous works (Pechereau et al 2012, Pechereau and Bourdon 2014): a low uniform preionization of electrons and positive ions in both air gaps (above and below the dielectric layer) with a density of ${{10}^{4}}~\text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-3}}$ . For these conditions, the discharge ignites at the point electrode at ${{\tau}_{\text{igni}}}=0.9$ ns. We define the time of ignition ${{\tau}_{\text{igni}}}$ as the time when the electric field on the symmetry axis, which is the Laplacian electric field initially, starts to be disturbed by the electric field induced by the space charge created close to the point electrode. Figure 3 shows the distributions of the electron density and absolute values of the electric field at t  =  2.6, 4.9 and 6.5 ns. As already observed in Pechereau et al (2014) for the same geometry but without a dielectric plane obstacle on the discharge path, the discharge first develops as a spherical discharge and then propagates axially towards the cathode plane. As shown in figure 3, this first positive discharge impacts the dielectric layer at ${{\tau}_{\text{impact}}}=2.6$ ns. We define the time of impact ${{\tau}_{\text{impact}}}$ as the time just before the sudden increase of the electric field in the head of the discharge on the symmetry axis, due to the creation of the sheath close to the dielectric surface. Then the discharge starts to spread on the upper surface of the dielectric layer. At the same time, we observe that the amplitude of the electric field in the second air gap below the dielectric plane increases. At ${{\tau}_{\text{rei}}}=4.9$ ns, a second positive discharge is ignited close to the bottom surface of the dielectric plane. Figures 4(a) and (b) show the time evolutions of the radial profiles of surface charges on both faces of the dielectric layer for the same condition as figure 3 and for t  =  2 ns upto ${{\tau}_{\text{rei}}}=4.9$ ns. As the first positive discharge spreads on the surface of the dielectric plane, its upper surface is charged positively by positive ions and its bottom surface is charged negatively mostly by electrons and negative ions. It is interesting to note that due to the fast pulsed high voltage applied to the sharp point electrode, the radius of the discharge impacting the dielectric surface is larger than in conditions studied in Pechereau et al (2012) and Pechereau and Bourdon (2014). As a consequence, we observe a faster surface charging. However, as in Pechereau et al (2012) and Pechereau and Bourdon (2014), we have checked that the amount of surface charges is too low at ${{\tau}_{\text{rei}}}=4.9$ ns to increase significantly the electric field in the second air gap and then to explain the discharge reignition. Then the increase of the electric field in the second air gap is mostly due to the potential redistribution in the interelectrode gap after the positive streamer propagation in the first air gap (i.e. most of the voltage difference is applied between the upper dielectric surface and the cathode). In the second air gap, as the first discharge spreads on the upper dielectric surface for $t>{{\tau}_{\text{impact}}}=2.6$ ns, we observe an almost homogeneous electric field that is $\geqslant $ 50 kV · $\text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-1}}$ , i.e. higher than the breakdown field of air at atmospheric pressure. As a consequence, the charged species density increases rapidly due to ionization processes in the second air gap for $t>{{\tau}_{\text{impact}}}=2.6$ ns and at ${{\tau}_{\text{rei}}}=4.9$ ns a second positive discharge ignites on the symmetry axis close to the bottom surface of the dielectrics. This discharge propagates and impacts the cathode at $\tau _{\text{connec}}^{\text{plane}}=6.5$ ns. The time of impact on the cathode surface $\tau _{\text{connec}}^{\text{plane}}$ is defined as the time just before the rapid decrease of the electric field in the head of the discharge and the formation of a conducting channel between the surface of the cathode and the lower surface of the dielectrics. The numerical results obtained in figures 3 and 4 show that in the studied experimental geometry, the reignition process (${{\tau}_{\text{rei}}}-{{\tau}_{\text{impact}}}=2.3$ ns) and the dynamics of the reignited discharge ($\tau _{\text{connec}}^{\text{plane}}-{{\tau}_{\text{rei}}}=1.6$ ns) are very fast. In the simulations, the delay between the time of ignition of the first discharge at the point anode and the impact on the cathode of the reignited discharge is of $\Delta t_{\text{delay}}^{\text{num}}=\tau _{\text{connec}}^{\text{plane}}-{{\tau}_{\text{igni}}}=5.6$ ns and is much less than the delays measured experimentally $\Delta t_{\text{delay}}^{\text{exp}}\in \left[18,22\right]$ ns. In the following sections, we discuss and analyze physical processes that could allow longer reignition delays to be obtained in the simulations.

Figure 3.

Figure 3. Discharge reignition dynamics with as the initial condition a uniform preionization of electrons and positive ions in both air gaps with a density of ${{10}^{4}}~\text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-3}}$ . Cross-sectional views of the absolute value of the electric field and the electron density at t  =  2.6, 4.9 and 6.5 ns.

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Figure 4.

Figure 4. Time evolutions of the radial profiles of positive surface charges ${{\sigma}_{\text{u}}}$ deposited on the upper dielectric surface and absolute value of negative surface charges ${{\sigma}_{\text{b}}}$ deposited on the bottom surface of the dielectric layer for the same condition as figure 3 and for t  =  2 ns upto ${{\tau}_{\text{rei}}}=4.9$ ns.

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4.2. Discussion on physical processes to be considered in the model to increase the reignition delays

In the simulations presented in the previous section, it is assumed that the initial level of seed charges in air is ${{10}^{4}}~\text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-3}}$ . For the air gap above the dielectric layer, based on the good agreement obtained in Pechereau et al (2014) for the same geometry but without a dielectric plane obstacle on the discharge path, we consider that this low value of ${{10}^{4}}~\text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-3}}$ allows the discharge ignition to be modelled accurately at the point. As shown in figure 3, after the first discharge impact on the upper dielectric surface, rapidly, around the symmetry axis in the second air gap, a region where the electric field is uniform and higher than the breakdown field is formed and expands radially. Then, even with a low preionization density of ${{10}^{4}}~\text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-3}}$ in the second gap, a fast reignition process is observed. So first, we have questioned the value of ${{10}^{4}}~\text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-3}}$ for seed charges below the dielectric plane for our conditions.

As the experiments are single shot, there are at least a few minutes between each applied voltage pulse. In Pancheshnyi (2005), it is pointed out that different key physical and chemical processes occur in an air post-discharge after the end of a voltage pulse:

  • First at 300 K, electrons quickly attach to ${{\text{O}}_{2}}$ :
    Equation (2)
    The exponential decay time of this process at atmospheric pressure is $\Delta {{\text{t}}_{1}}=20$ ns after the end of the discharge.
  • Then, for times that are greater than $\Delta {{\text{t}}_{1}}$ , the ion–ion dissociative recombination of $\text{O}_{2}^{-}$ and ${{\text{O}}^{+}}_{4}$ occurs:
    Equation (3)
    Equation (4)
    with a characteristic time $\Delta {{\text{t}}_{2}}~=~10-100$ ns for the conditions studied in this work.
  • Finally, on longer timescales, ion diffusion losses at the reactor surfaces and the cathode have to be considered.

Then, according to Pancheshnyi (2005), after a few seconds of post-discharge, the density of positive and negative ions is $\sim {{n}_{\text{n},\text{p}}}={{10}^{4}}~\text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-3}}$ and, for a longer time between two consecutive applied voltage pulses, the diffusion of ions to the reactor surfaces will decrease the level of seed charges to lower values.

First, it is interesting to point out that in the previous section, we have used ${{10}^{4}}~\text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-3}}$ as the initial condition for densities of electrons and positive ions, that is to say we have assumed an instantaneous detachment of electrons from negative ions as soon as an electric field is applied. To check the influence of this hypothesis, we have carried out a simulation with an initial density of seed charges of ${{\text{n}}_{\text{n},\text{p}}}={{10}^{4}}~\text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-3}}$ (and no electrons) in the second air gap and we have used as in Tholin and Bourdon (2013b) the detachment rate given by Mnatsakanyan and Naidis (1991). As the electric field becomes rapidly higher than $E~\geqslant 50~\text{kV}~\centerdot ~\text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-1}}$ in the second gap, only a short delay is induced by detachment and we finally obtain $\Delta t_{\text{delay}}^{\text{exp}}\in \left[6,7\right]$ ns, which is still much less than experimental values.

Secondly, if we consider that there are several minutes between consecutive voltage pulses, according to Pancheshnyi (2005), the level of seed charges in the second small air gap, closed by lateral reactor walls, is ${{n}_{\text{n},\text{p}}}~\leqslant ~{{10}^{4}}~\text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-3}}$ . As a limit case, we have considered that there are no seed charges in the volume of the second air gap. As the electric field in the second air gap is directed towards the cathode plane, we have assumed that the only source of electrons in the second air gap is the metallic cathode surface. In the following section we propose to carry out a detailed analysis of the processes that could explain an electron emission from the cathode surface.

4.3. Analysis of emission processes at the cathode surface

In the literature, two emission processes are put forward:

  • The thermionic emission processThe current density ${{J}_{\text{R}-\text{S}}}$ ($\text{A}\centerdot \text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-2}}$ ) at the cathode surface is calculated with the Richardson–Schottky equation (Murphy and Good 1956):
    Equation (5)
    where ${{A}_{1}}=0.5{{\pi}^{-2}}{{(kT)}^{2}}\left(\pi d/\sin (\pi d)\right)$ and $d={{F}^{3/4}}/(\pi kT)$ where ϕ is the work function in eV representing the energy required for an electron at the energy Fermi level to be released outside of the metallic cathode and β is the amplification factor of the electric field at the cathode surface Ecath (that represents microscopic roughness at the cathode surface). The thermionic effect represents the emission of electrons from a metallic cathode surface induced by the temperature of the cathode surface (here T  =  300 K). The presence of an exterior electric field at the cathode surface lowers the surface barrier and increases the emission current.
  • The field emission processThe current density ${{J}_{\text{F}-\text{N}}}$ ($\text{A}\centerdot \text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-2}}$ ) at the cathode surface is calculated with the Fowler–Nordheim equation (Murphy and Good 1956):
    Equation (6)
    where
    where v and t, functions of $\left({{F}^{1/2}}/\phi \right)$ , are tabulated in Burgess et al (1953). For field emission, the electrons tunnel easily through the field deformed surface barrier. It is interesting to note that the field emission process coupled with the positive-ion bombardment at the cathode was used in negative streamer simulations to demonstrate the role of the field-effect emission in both the ignition and development of negative coronas in Reess and Paillol (1997) and Paillol et al (2002).

To determine the time required to emit one electron from the cathode surface in our conditions, we have integrated in time the flux of electrons emitted at the cathode surface by thermionic and field emission processes. In these calculations, we have considered no seed charges in the second air gap at t  =  0 ns. As the experimental reignition delay in section 3 is $18~\text{ns}\leqslant \Delta t_{\text{delay}}^{\text{exp}}\leqslant 22~\text{ns}$ , we have carried out simulations during a total simulation time of ${{t}_{\text{simu}}}=24$ ns, i.e. until the end of the voltage plateau. We have varied the value of the work function $\phi \in \left[3,4\right]$ eV which corresponds to the usual values for metallic electrodes. In Reess and Paillol (1997), a value of $\beta =120$ for the amplification factor was used, albeit it was for a point metallic cathode. Nevertheless in Little and Whitney (1963), it was found that even on a polished flat metallic cathode, small point like structures of 2 μm in height were experimentally found and a value of $\beta =100$ was defined as an acceptable amplification factor. In Le Delliou (2014), a segmented cathode is used, and so it is difficult to estimate the value of β. Therefore, in this work, we have varied the amplification factor $\beta \in \left[100,220\right]$ . In the simulations, we have assumed that the chosen values of ϕ and β are constant on the entire cathode surface.

In table 1, the time ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}$ to emit an electron from the cathode surface is given for different values of $\phi \in \left[3,4\right]$ eV and $\beta \in \left[100,220\right]$ . For a fixed value of the work function $\phi =3$ eV, we note that when the value of β decreases from 220 to 140, ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}$ increases from 3.1 ns to 6.4 ns. When the value of β becomes less than 120, the time required to emit an electron increases significantly and becomes larger than ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}>24$ ns. We note that the transition between ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}<7$ ns and ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}>24$ ns occurs for higher values of β as ϕ increases from 3 to 4 eV. For a fixed value of $\beta =220$ , we see that when the value of the work function increases from 3 eV to 4 eV, ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}$ increases from 3.1 ns to 6.2 ns. As β decreases and is between 200 and 140, we observe a transition between conditions with ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}<7$ ns and with ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}>24$ ns. We note that the transition occurs at lower values of ϕ as β decreases. For $\beta \leqslant 120$ , we have ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}>24$ ns for all values of $\phi \in \left[3,4\right]$ eV.

Table 1. Influence of the value of the work function ϕ and the amplification factor β on the time ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}$ required for an electron to be emitted at the cathode surface by thermionic and field emission processes.

β ϕ
  3 (eV) 3.5 (eV) 3.8 (eV) 4 (eV)
220 3.1 ns 3.9 ns 4.8 ns 6.2 ns
200 3.3 ns 4.5 ns 6.9 ns >24 ns
180 3.7 ns 6.0 ns >24 ns >24 ns
160 4.3 ns >24 ns >24 ns >24 ns
140 6.4 ns >24 ns >24 ns >24 ns
120 >24 ns >24 ns >24 ns >24 ns
100 >24 ns >24 ns >24 ns >24 ns

Note: The notation  >24 ns stands for cases for which ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}$ is longer than the simulation time of ${{t}_{\text{simu}}}=24$ ns.

In table 2, the number of electrons Ne accumulated at the cathode surface at ${{t}_{\text{simu}}}=24$ ns is given for the same conditions as in table 1. For a fixed value of the work function $\phi =4$ eV, we see that when the amplification factor decreases from $\beta =200$ to 100, Ne decreases from $2.1\times {{10}^{-1}}$ to $4.9\times {{10}^{-21}}$ . For $\phi =4$ eV, by just increasing the value of β from 200 to 220, an electron is emitted at ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}=6.2$ ns. Finally, the results presented in tables 1 and 2 show that the time ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}$ to emit an electron at the cathode surface is strongly dependent on the values of β and ϕ. To be close to the experimental reignition delay $\Delta t_{\text{delay}}^{\text{exp}}~\in \left[18,22\right]$ ns, the emission of an electron has to occur at ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}<{{t}_{\text{simu}}}=24$ ns. In table 1, the only conditions to emit an electron from the cathode surface with ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}<24$ ns, give an emission time ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}\in \left[3.1,6.9\right]$ ns.

Table 2. Influence of the value of the work function ϕ and the amplification factor β on the number of electrons Ne accumulated at the cathode surface at ${{t}_{\text{simu}}}=24$ ns for the same conditions as in table 1.

β ϕ
  3 (eV) 3.5 (eV) 3.8 (eV) 4 (eV)
220 ${{N}_{\text{e}}}>1$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}>1$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}>1$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}>1$
200 ${{N}_{\text{e}}}>1$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}>1$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}>1$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~2.1\times {{10}^{-1}}$
180 ${{N}_{\text{e}}}>1$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}>1$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~5.1\times {{10}^{-2}}$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~6.8\times {{10}^{-4}}$
160 ${{N}_{\text{e}}}>1$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~8.6\times {{10}^{-2}}$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~7.3\times {{10}^{-5}}$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~6.0\times {{10}^{-7}}$
140 ${{N}_{\text{e}}}>1$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~5.2\times {{10}^{-5}}$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~1.8\times {{10}^{-8}}$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~7.7\times {{10}^{-11}}$
120 ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~7.6\times {{10}^{-3}}$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~3.4\times {{10}^{-9}}$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~3.4\times {{10}^{-13}}$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~6.5\times {{10}^{-16}}$
100 ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~2.4\times {{10}^{-7}}$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~1.4\times {{10}^{-14}}$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~2.5\times {{10}^{-18}}$ ${{N}_{\text{e}}}~=~4.9\times {{10}^{-21}}$

Note: The notation i.e. ${{N}_{\text{e}}}>1$ stands for a case when an electron is emitted at the cathode for $t<{{t}_{\text{simu}}}=24$ ns.

In the following sections, we propose to simulate what happens in the second air gap, after the emission of an electron at the cathode at ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}=6.9$ ns. We have chosen the highest value of ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}$ in expecting to be closer to the experimental reignition delay $\Delta t_{\text{delay}}^{\text{exp}}$ at the end. First, at $t={{\tau}_{\text{e}}}=6.9$ ns, based on the results obtained in section 4.1, in the second air gap, around the symmetry axis, the electric field is uniform and slightly higher than $50~\text{kV}\centerdot \text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-1}}$ . Secondly, in section 4.4, we use a Monte Carlo model to follow the dynamics of formation of an avalanche starting from a single electron in a volume with a high and uniform electric field. Finally, in section 4.5, results from the Monte Carlo simulations are used as initial conditions of the fluid model presented in section 2 to simulate the discharge reignition dynamics in the second air gap.

4.4. Study of the avalanche formation in the second air gap with a Monte Carlo model

The Monte Carlo model developed in this work simulates trajectories and creation of electrons in 3D space under the influence of constant applied electric field of magnitude $E=53~\text{kV}\centerdot \text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-1}}$ . Background gas is composed of 80% of N2 and 20% of O2 with total number density of ${{N}_{0}}=2.688\times $ ${{10}^{19}}~$ cm−3. The model is closely based on Moss et al (2006), except that individual electrons are followed, i.e. no remapping in phase space nor in physical space is considered. The set of cross sections used is from the MAGBOLTZ code (Biagi 1999, 2005) and the same set has recently been used in Chanrion et al (2016). The scattering angle after collisions is obtained based on the knowledge of the ratio of momentum transfer and total cross section for individual collision following the scheme of Okhrimovskyy et al (2002). Kinematics of collisions follows (Bird 1994). Energy of a secondary electron created with an ionization collision is determined according to the model of Opal et al (1971). For details of the Monte Carlo model for electron transport in air see Moss et al (2006) and Chanrion and Neubert (2008).

The initial velocity of seed electrons at ${{t}_{0}}={{\tau}_{\text{e}}}$ , the time of the electron emission from the cathode, is sampled from Maxwellian velocity distribution with an electron temperature of 0.5 eV. Note that the initial velocity of the seed electron has no effect on the avalanche development. A set of 100 avalanches has been simulated in order to obtain smooth distribution of the electron density in space. Any effect of the space charge on the electric field has been neglected, it is a reasonable simplification considering only early stages of an electron avalanche with low electron density. Moreover, no photoionization is considered for this model. Figure 5 shows the resulting electron density deduced from the Monte Carlo model at times t0  +  1.0 ns, t0  +  2.0 ns, and t0  +  3.0 ns. The electron density has been determined assuming axial symmetry in r-z space, where $r=\sqrt{{{x}^{2}}+{{y}^{2}}}$ is the radial distance from the axis, using 2D histogram with bin size of $4\,\mu \text{m}\times 4\,\mu $ m. The electron density has been normalized in such a way that it corresponds to an average density distribution created from a single seed electron. Density profiles have been fitted at selected times by 2D Gaussian function:

Equation (7)

with n0, z0, ${{\sigma}_{z}}$ and ${{\sigma}_{r}}$ being fit parameters. For example, at t0  +  3.0 ns for figure 5(c), we have found ${{n}_{0}}=1.03\times {{10}^{10}}~\text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-3}}$ , ${{z}_{0}}=6.63\times {{10}^{-2}}~\text{cm}$ , ${{\sigma}_{r}}=2.77\times {{10}^{-3}}$ cm, and ${{\sigma}_{z}}=3.29\times $ ${{10}^{-3}}$ cm. We have checked that the evolution of parameters n0 and z0 with time shows an excellent agreement with the Townsend avalanche process at the given electric field with an effective Townsend ionisation coefficient of ${{\alpha}_{\text{eff}}}=10465~{{\text{m}}^{-1}}$ and drift velocity of the avalanche center of ${{v}_{\text{drift}}}=221141~\text{m}\centerdot {{\text{s}}^{-1}}$ . It is interesting to note that the Townsend avalanche center would reach the bottom surface of the dielectric layer in a time of about t0  +  18.1 ns.

Figure 5.

Figure 5. Electron density at (a) t0  +  1.0 ns; (b) t0  +  2.0 ns; and (c) t0  +  3.0 ns for an electron avalanche growth. Right panels: electron density calculated from the Monte Carlo model. Left panels: fit of a Gaussian profile with equation (7).

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As at t0  +  3.0 ns, we have a Gaussian cloud with a sufficiently high peak density to be used in a fluid model, in the next section, we use the Gaussian cloud shown in figure 5(c) as the input parameter for the fluid code.

4.5. Simulation of the reignition dynamics in the second air gap after an electron emission at the cathode

As discussed in section 4.3, we consider that in our studied conditions, an electron is emitted from the cathode surface at $t={{\tau}_{\text{e}}}=6.9$ ns. Then, based on the results of section 4.4, only 3 ns later, a Gaussian cloud is formed and is defined by equation (7) and n0, z0, ${{\sigma}_{z}}$ and ${{\sigma}_{r}}$ given in section 4.4 for t0  +  3.0 ns. In this section, we simulate with the fluid model presented in section 2, the discharge ignition and propagation in the first gap for t  >  0, with no initial seed charges in the second air gap. Then at t  =  10 ns, we use as the initial condition in the second air gap, a Gaussian neutral plasma cloud with the values of n0, z0, ${{\sigma}_{z}}$ and ${{\sigma}_{r}}$ derived from the Monte Carlo simulations.

Figure 6 shows the distributions of the electron density and absolute values of the electric field at t  =  10, 13 and 14.8 ns. We observe a rapid increase of the electron density in the second air gap as electrons drift towards the dielectric plane and a double headed discharge ignites in the second air gap. A positive discharge front propagates towards the cathode surface and a negative discharge front propagates towards the bottom surface of the dielectric plane as shown at t  =  13 ns. At $\tau _{\text{connect}}^{\text{plane}}=14.8$ ns, the positive head impacts the cathode and 0.1 ns later the negative head impacts the bottom surface of the dielectric plane. It is important to note that for $10\leqslant t\leqslant 14.8$ ns, the amount of surface charges is very low and has no influence on the reignited discharge dynamics. Finally, for the simulation presented in figure 6, with the emission of an electron at ${{\tau}_{\text{e}}}=6.9$ ns, the duration of the formation and propagation of the reignited discharge in the second air gap is ${{\Delta }_{\text{ele}}}=\tau _{\text{connect}}^{\text{plane}}-{{\tau}_{\text{e}}}=7.9$ ns. The delay between the time of ignition of the first discharge at the point anode and the impact on the cathode of the reignited discharge is of $\Delta t_{\text{delay}}^{\text{num}}=\tau _{\text{connect}}^{\text{plane}}-{{\tau}_{\text{igni}}}=13.9$ ns. This value is rather close to the experimental delay $\Delta t_{\text{delay}}^{\text{exp}}\in \left[18,22\right]$ ns.

Figure 6.

Figure 6. Discharge dynamics with as the initial condition, no seed charges in the second air gap and at t  =  10 ns a Gaussian cloud in the second air gap to model an electron emission from the cathode at $t={{\tau}_{\text{e}}}=6.9$ ns. Cross-sectional views of the absolute value of the electric field and electron density at t  =  10, 13 and 14.8 ns.

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5. Conclusions

The principal results and contributions, which follow from numerical studies presented in this paper on fast pulsed discharges in atmospheric pressure air, can be summarized as follows:

  • (i)  
    With a fast pulsed high voltage applied to a sharp point electrode, we have shown that with a 2D fluid model, a positive discharge ignites and first develops as a spherical discharge around the point. Then, this large discharge propagates axially towards the cathode plane and is stopped by the dielectric layer. As this first discharge starts spreading on the upper dielectric surface, rapidly, around the symmetry axis in the second air gap below the dielectric layer, a region where the electric field is uniform and higher than the breakdown field is formed and expands radially. This increase of electric field in the second air gap is mostly due to the potential redistribution in the interelectrode gap after the first positive discharge propagation in the first air gap.
  • (ii)  
    Then, even with a low preionization density of ${{10}^{4}}~\text{c}{{\text{m}}^{-3}}$ in the second air gap, we have observed a rapid reignition of a positive discharge close to the bottom surface of the dielectric layer. As in experiments, the reignition of the second discharge is much slower, we have investigated the limit case with no initial seed charges in the second air gap. For the studied geometry, we have calculated the time to release an electron from the cathode surface by thermionic and field emission processes. We have found that this time is strongly dependent on the work function of the metallic cathode ϕ and the amplification factor β.
  • (iii)  
    We have used a 3D Monte Carlo model to follow the dynamics of formation of an avalanche starting from a single electron emitted at the cathode. To model the conditions in the second air gap, we have considered a volume with a uniform electric field, higher than the breakdown field. We have shown that in a few nanoseconds, in air at atmospheric pressure, a Gaussian cloud of seed charges is formed at a small distance from the cathode plane. Then, we have used this Gaussian cloud as the initial condition of the 2D fluid model to simulate the discharge reignition dynamics in the second air gap. In this case, we have observed the ignition of a double headed discharge. A positive discharge front propagates towards the cathode surface and a negative discharge front propagates towards the bottom surface of the dielectric plane. With this second scenario, the reignition delay is in rather good agreement with experiments.

Acknowledgments

This work was initiated during the ALVEOPLAS project (Grant No ANR-08-BLAN-0159-01). It has been done partially within the LABEX Plas@par project and has received financial state aid managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche as part of the programme 'Investissements d'avenir' under the reference ANR-11-IDEX-0004-02. The authors thank Drs P Le Delliou, P Tardiveau and S Pasquiers at LPGP for helpful discussions on their experimental results and Drs J Jansky and S Pancheshnyi and Prof J Paillol for helpful discussions on surface emission processes. ZB acknowledges support of the Czech Science Foundation research project 15-04023S and project LO1411 (NPU I) funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, and also is grateful for helpful discussions with Dr O Chanrion regarding Monte Carlo methods.

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10.1088/0963-0252/25/4/044004