Kinetic study of key species and reactions of atmospheric pressure pulsed corona discharge in humid air

In this study, we examined the key particles and chemical reactions that substantially influence plasma characteristics. In summarizing the chemical reaction model for the discharge process of N2–O2–H2O(g) mixed gases, 65 particle types and 673 chemical reactions were investigated. On this basis, a global model of atmospheric pressure humid air discharge plasma was developed, with a focus on the variation of charged particles densities and chemical reaction rates with time under the excitation of a 0–200 Td pulsed electric field. Particles with a density greater than 1% of the electron density were classified as key particles. For such particles, the top ranking generation or consumption reactions (i.e. where the sum of their rates was greater than 95% of the total rate of the generation or consumption reactions) were classified as key chemical reactions. On the basis of the key particles and reactions identified, a simplified global model was derived. A comparison of the global model with the simplified global model in terms of the model parameters, particle densities, reaction rates (with time), and calculation efficiencies demonstrated that both models can adequately identify the key particles and chemical reactions reflecting the chemical process of atmospheric pressure discharge plasma in humid air. Thus, by analyzing the key particles and chemical reaction pathways, the charge and substance transfer mechanism of atmospheric pressure pulse discharge plasma in humid air was revealed, and the mechanism underlying water vapor molecules' influence on atmospheric pressure air discharge was elucidated.     

Pattern Formation in a Dusty Plasma System

A rich variety of dust patterns have been observed in a capacitively coupled rf discharge dusty plasma system. Dust particles are synthesized through chemical reaction of the filled gas mixture during discharge. Different patterns are formed in different stages of particle growth. In the early stage of particle growth, dust cloud can be formed by a large number of small particles, and its behavior appears to be fluid-like. Such interesting nonlinear phenomena as dust void and complex dust cloud patterns are observed in this stage. As dust particles grow, the particle size and structure can be controlled to follow two different routes. In one of the routes, the particles grow up in a ball-like shape and can be formed into regular lattice and cluster patterns. In the other, the particles grow up in a fractal shape.     

Theoretical research on the transport and ionization rate coefficients in glow discharge dusty plasma

The electron kinetic model for investigating the transport and ionization rate coefficients of argon glow discharge dusty plasma is developed from the Boltzmann equation.Both of the electron-neutral and electron-dust collisions are considered as collision terms in the kinetic equation.The kinetic equation is simplified by employing the local approximation and nonlocal approach under the same discharge conditions,and the corresponding simplified kinetic equations are known as local and nonlocal kinetic equations respectively.Then the electron energy distribution function(EEDF)is obtained by numerically solving the local and nonlocal kinetic equations and the dust charging equations simultaneously.Based on the obtained EEDFs,the effective electron temperature,electron mobility,electron diffusion coefficient and ionization rate coefficient are calculated for different discharge conditions.It is shown that the EEDFs calculated from the local kinetic model clearly differ from the nonlocal EEDFs and both the local and nonlocal EEDFs are also clearly different with Maxwellian distributions.The appearance of dust particles results in an obvious decrease of high energy electrons and increase of low energy electrons when axial electric field is low.With the increase of axial electric field,the influence of dust particles on the EEDFs becomes smaller.The electron mobility and diffusion coefficients calculated on the basis of local and nonlocal EEDFs do not differ greatly to the dust-free ones.While,when dust density nd=10^6 cm^?3,the electron mobility increases obviously compared with the dust-free results at low axial electric field and decreases with the increasing axial electric field until they are close to the dust-free ones.Meanwhile,electron diffusion coefficients for dusty case become smaller and decrease with the increasing axial electric field.The ionization rate coefficients decrease when dust particles are introduced and they approach the dust-free results gradually with the increasing axial electric field.     

Development of Dust Removal System Using Static Electricity for Fusion Experimental Reactors

Tests to collect and transport metallic and non-metallic dust particles have been conducted using static electricity in a vacuum environment to investigate the applicability of a static electricity dust removal system for fusion experimental reactors. The dust particles are charged by electrostatic induction, floated and collected due to the Coulomb force generated by the AC electric field. They are then transported due to the gradient force induced by the electric curtain of the non-uniform travelling-wave electric field. Using a fully insulated electrode with a single-phase AC voltage up to 15kV, aluminum and carbon dust were successfully collected. The highest collection rates for the aluminum and carbon dust were around 30 and 2g/min, respectively. The linear-type electrodes, using as high as 22kV of the three-phase AC voltage, transported aluminum dust up to an angle of 60°. Applying a guide electrode to the linear-type electrode, the transportation rate was approximately doubled and almost constant at every angle, including a 90° angle. The system transported aluminum dust up to the rate of 13 g/min. The influence of the 0.15 T magnetic field on the dust collection and transportation efficiencies was found to be negligible.     

Stationary Potential Formation and Oscillations in Plasma with Immovable Dust Particles

Stationary electrostatic-potential formation in plasma with immovable dust particles was investigated by using one-dimensional kinetic analysis. It is clarified that the density of negatively charged dust particles below the threshold value makes the potential decrease monotonically. When the dust densities are above the threshold, there appears the stationary oscillation in an electrostatic potential due to the streaming plasma. It is found that the wavelength of this mode is of the order of Debye length. These phenomena are different from those of the conventional dust ion-acoustic waves in plasma, where the effect of dust-charging is not taken into account.     

Transient Behavior of Negative Hydrogen Ion Extraction from Plasma

For plasma source,the extraction of negative ions is quite diferent from that of positive ions.To understand the efect of extraction field on plasma,the time-dependent behavior of negative hydrogen ion extraction from a negative ion source has been studied by particle-in-cell simulation in the collisionless limit.The simulations have shown that,due to the diference in dynamics between electrons and ions,the imbalance of the numbers of charged particles occurs in the source,results in the broadening of plasma sheath and the great increase of plasma potential.The resultant high sheath field and the ambipolar electric field in plasma make the negatively charged particles congregate inside the sheath and move toward the extraction outlet.The emission area of negative ions is much smaller than that of the extraction aperture,which is in sharp contrast to the case of positive ion extraction.     

Effect of Addition of Nitrogen to a Capacitively Radio-Frequency Hydrogen Discharge

A hybrid PIC/MC model is developed in this work for H2-xN2 capacitively coupled radio-frequency （CCRF） discharges in which we take into account 43 kinds of collisions reaction processes between charged particles （e-, H3＋, H＋, H＋, N＋, N＋） and ground-state molecules （H2, H＋ N2）. In addition, the mean energies and densities of electrons and ions （ 3, H＋, H＋）, and electric field distributions in the H2-N2 CCRF discharge are simulated by this model. Furthermore, the effects of addition of a variable percentage of nitrogen （0-30%） into the H2 discharge on the plasma processes and discharge characteristics are studied. It is shown that by increasing the percentage of nitrogen added to the system, the RF sheath thickness will narrow, the sheath electric field will be enhanced, and the mean energy of hydrogen ions impacting the electrodes will be increased. Because the electron impact ionization and dissociative ionization rates increase when N2 is added to the system, the electron mean density will increase while the electron mean energy and hydrogen ion density near the electrodes will decrease. This work aims to provide a theoretical basis for experimental studies and technological developments with regard to H2-N2 CCRF plasmas.     

Statistical method for studying the behavior of an ensemble of charged particles under the influence of their inherent magnetic field

The stationary solutions for the statistical distribution function of the charged particles in a discharge in an ionized gas contracting about its own axis of symmetry under the influence of the inherent magnetic field are given. An isothermal plasma at a very high temperature is considered (completely ionized gas). An exact solution is carried out in the case of cylindrical symmetry. The density distribution depends on an arbitrary constant C which is determined by the experimental conditions. At large r the solution has the asymptotic form      

On the emission of radiation from relattvistic charged particles in ferroelectrics

The interaction of charged particles with the alternating electric field inside ferroelectric substances is considered in a semiclassical approach. Monoenergetic γ-radiation is predicted for relativistic charged particles. The possible applications of this radiation are investigated.     

Particle Densities of the Atmospheric-Pressure Argon Plasmas Generated by the Pulsed Dielectric Barrier Discharges

Atmospheric-pressure argon plasmas have received increasing attention due to their high potential in many industrial and biomedical applications. In this paper, a 1-D fluid model is used for studying the particle density characteristics of the argon plasmas generated by the pulsed dielectric barrier discharges. The temporal evolutions of the axial particle density distributions are illustrated, and the influences of changing the main discharge conditions on the averaged particle densities are researched by independently varying the various discharge conditions. The calculation results show that the electron density and the ion density reach two peaks near the momentary cathodes during the rising and the falling edges of the pulsed voltage. Compared with the charged particle densities, the densities of the resonance state atom Ar~r and the metastable state atom Ar~mhave more uniform axial distributions, reach higher maximums and decay more slowly. During the platform of the pulsed voltage and the time interval between the pulses, the densities of the excited state atom Ar*are far lower than those of the Ar~r or the Ar~m. The averaged particle densities of the different considered particles increase with the increases of the amplitude and the frequency of the pulsed voltage. Narrowing the discharge gap and increasing the relative dielectric constant of the dielectric also contribute to the increase of the averaged particle densities. The effects of reducing the discharge gap distance on the neutral particle densities are more significant than the influences on the charged particle densities.     

Influence of velocity difference of correlated particles on the stopping power and vicinage effect

We theoretically investigate the influence of the velocity difference of charged particles moving closely in a metallic target on the stopping power and vicinage function, as well as the energy loss of a pair of charged particles penetrating coherently in the target medium. These correlated charged particles are considered as a degenerate electron gas with appropriate density. Based on the dielectric formalism, the mathematical expressions for the stopping power, vicinage effects and related quantities for two correlated protons in an aluminium target are given. Plasmon-pole approximation without dispersion is used to describe the target response. We show that the energy loss is slightly enhanced with a small relative velocity difference. The interference between such protons exhibits a maximum at certain velocity, and exhibits an oscillating behaviour when product of the relative difference velocity and time is beyond a threshold value. The results can be applied to, for example, the energy deposition of high current density ion beams.     

Particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo simulation of filamentary barrier discharges

The plasma behavior of filamentary barrier discharges in helium is simulated using a twodimensional (2D) particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo model.Four different phases have been suggested in terms of the development of the discharge:the Townsend phase;the space-charge dominated phase;the formation of the cathode layer,and the extinguishing phase.The spatialtemporal evolution of the particle densities,velocities of the charged particles,electric fields,and surface charges has been demonstrated.Our simulation provides insights into the underlying mechanism of the discharge and explains many dynamical behaviors of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) filaments.     

Study of ionic wind based on dielectric barrier discharge of carbon fiber spiral electrode

Based on the idea that a large number of charged particles can be generated by a high-frequency alternating current(AC)dielectric barrier discharge(DBD),and charged particles can be accelerated directionally by a direct current(DC)electric field,a new type of ionic wind formation method is proposed in this paper.To this end,a carbon fiber spiral electrode serves as the generation electrode and a metal rod electrode as the collection electrode,with AC and DC potentials applied respectively to the generation electrode and the collection electrode to form an AC-DC coupled electric field.Under the action of the coupled electric field,a dielectric barrier discharge is formed on the carbon fiber spiral electrode,and the electrons generated by the discharge move from the generation electrode to the collection electrode in the opposite direction of the electric field vectors.During the movement,energy is transferred to the gas molecules by their colliding with neutral gas molecules,thereby forming a directional gas stream movement,i.e.ionic wind.In the research process,it is verified through electric field simulation analysis and discharge experiment that this method can effectively increase the number of charged particles in the discharge process,and the velocity of the ionic wind is nearly doubled.On this basis,the addition of a third electrode forms a distinct discharge region and an electron acceleration region,which further increases its velocity.The experimental result shows that the ionic wind speed reaches up to 2.98 m s^?1.Thanks to the ability of the electrode structure to generate an atmospheric pressure DBD plasma and form an ionic wind,we can create a noise-free air purification device without resorting to a fan,with this device having good application prospects in the field of air purification.     

Dusty Sheaths in Magnetized Plasmas

Parameters of self-consistent magnetized dusty sheaths are investigated using computer simulations of a temporal evolution of one-dimensional slab plasma with dust particles. The evolution is caused by a collection of electrons and ions by both a wall (electrode) and dust particles, which are initially immersed into plasma and distributed in front of the electrode. Obtained results show the existence of oscillations of a self-consistent potential in magnetized dusty sheaths including boundary potentials. Dust particles weaken magnetized sheaths and create additional sheaths close to a boundary of dust particles. The magnetic field does not influence on the dust particle charge.     

Deflection of high-energy charged particles in quasi-channeling states in bent crystals

Planar quasi-channeling of high-energy charged particles in a bent crystal is studied using a computer analysis of particle trajectories. It is discovered that for a small crystal bend, far from the critical one, quasi-channeled particles are deflected to the side opposite to the bend, i.e., a “volume reflection” of the particles (positive and negative) by the field of the bent atomic planes takes place. Moreover, it is shown that the volume capture of quasi-channeled particles into the channeling regime in a bent crystal due to multiple scattering by crystal electrons and nuclei, which was already known for positive particles, also occurs for negative particles, and the probability is even higher than for positive ones.     

A Method of Calculating the Pitch Angle Distributions of Particle Fluxes Based on Rocket and Satellite Data

A method of calculating pitch angle distributions of fluxes of charged particles in a magnetic field based on rocket and satellite data is described. The accuracy of this method is estimated and a sequence of instructions is given to help in performing such calculations.     

Some studies on transient behaviours of sheath formation in dusty plasma with the effect of adiabatically heated electrons and ions

Based on quasipotential analysis, a plasma sheath is studied through the derivation of the Sagdeev potential equation in dusty plasma coexisting with adiabatically heated electrons and ions. Salient features as to the existence of sheaths are shown by solving the Sagdeev potential equation through the Runge–Kutta method, with appropriate consideration of adiabatically heated electrons and ions in the dynamical system. It has been shown that adiabatic heating of plasma sets a limit to the critical dust speed depending on the densities and Mach number, and it is believed that its role is very important to the sheath. One present problem is the contraction of the sheath region whereby dust grains levitated into the sheath lead to a crystallization similar to the formation of nebulons and are compressed to a larger chunk of the dust cloud by shrinking of the sheath. Our overall observations advance knowledge of sheath formation and are expected to be of interest in astroplasmas.     

Density effect for the ionization loss of charged particles in various substances

The density-effect correction δ(β) for the ionization energy loss of charged particles has been evaluated as a function of the particle velocity for a total of 278 substances, including 98 cases of elements of the periodic table (12 gases and 86 condensed materials, including liquid hydrogen and graphite of three different densities) and 180 chemical compounds and substances of biological interest (13 gases and 167 liquid or solid substances). In the calculations, up-to-date values of the mean excitation potential I and of the atomic absorption edges hv_i were employed as input data for the general equations for δ(β) previously derived by Sternheimer.     

The Influence of the Negative Radial Electric Field on the Orbit of Banana Particles in Tokamak

This paper explores the patterns of influence of the negative radial electric field on the drift displacement and trajectory of charged particles, for it is essential for further investigation into the transitional mechanism of L-H Mode. In the light of superposition between the poloidal velocity of charged particles and the E ×B drift caused by the negative radial electric field, the paper offers a theoretical analysis and value simulations. Under the action of different radial electric fields, results have been obtained in regard to changes in the velocity of charged particles (mainly ions), patterns of changes in drift displacement, regional change of banana particles, and features of transition and change between trajectories of transiting particles and banana particles.