Spatial, temporal, and voltage-dependent measurement of the reduced electric field of nanosecond pulsed discharges with a pulse width of 5 ns in synthetic air at atmospheric pressure

Abstract The reduced electric field E/N is one of the important parameters for understanding the occurrence, propagation, state, and plasma chemical reaction of discharge and plasma phenomena. The measurement of the E/N using the nitrogen emission intensity ratio has been used to help understand various discharge and plasma phenomena. Among various discharge and plasma phenomena, nanosecond pulsed discharges are expected to be used in gas processing, environmental purification, surface treatment, agriculture, and medical applications. However, the E/N of nanosecond pulsed discharges with very short pulse widths has not been clarified. In this work, the intensity ratio of nitrogen is used to investigate the E/N of primary and secondary streamer discharges nanosecond pulses generated between a coaxial cylindrical reactor in terms of spatial, temporal, and voltage dependence. Therefore, the maximum E/N of the positive nanosecond pulsed primary streamer discharge generated at the center of the electrode was 522–834 Td. The E/N at the coaxial cylinder’s center was also higher than the E/N near the outer electrode. As the applied voltage increased, the E/N of nanosecond pulsed discharges also increased. From these results, the reasons why nanosecond pulse discharges are effective in applications (ex. Ozone generation and NO x treatment) are discussed.