Ignition and operation of confined atmospheric plasmas under nanosecond pulsed power

Plasma conditions and processes depend strongly on the applied voltage waveform. Common plasma<br/>power supplies have limited flexibility in this regard, which limits the versatility and efficiency of any<br/>plasma process.<br/>At Eindhoven university, we developed a megawatt-class arbitrary waveform Marx generator (IMG) [1]<br/>to address this limitation. The system generates positive pulsed waveforms up to 20 kV amplitude, 1−10<br/>kHz repetition rate, and 30−2000 ns pulse length.<br/>Using the IMG, the dependence of plasma characteristics (impedance, emission spectrum), chemical<br/>conversion, and ignition is studied in relation to applied waveform (rise time, pulse width, voltage) in a<br/>compact continuous-flow 1-cm gap reactor device at atmospheric pressure. Additionally we investigate<br/>the influence of gas type (argon, air) and electrode configuration (metal, shape, gap length) on the plasma<br/>characteristics