A Practical Method for Controlling the Asymmetric Mode of Atmospheric Dielectric Barrier Discharges

Atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) have been applied in a very broad range of industries due to their outstanding advantages. However, different discharge modes can influence the stability of atmospheric DBDs, such as the density and composition of active species in discharge plasmas, thereby impacting the effect of related applications. It is necessary and valuable to investigate the control of nonlinear modes both in theoretical and practical aspects. In this paper, we propose a practical, state-controlling method to switch the discharge mode from asymmetry to symmetry through changing frequencies of the applied voltage. The simulation results show that changing frequencies can effectively alter the seed electron level at the beginning of the breakdown and then influence the subsequent discharge mode. The higher controlling frequency is recommended since it can limit the dissipative process of residual electrons and is in favor of the formation of symmetric discharge in the after-controlling section. Under our simulation conditions, the discharges with an initial driving frequency of 14 kHz can always be converted to the symmetric period-one mode when the controlling frequency is beyond 30 kHz.