Mitigating plasma constriction using dielectric barriers in radio-frequency atmospheric pressure glow discharges

It is known that radio-frequency (rf) atmospheric glow discharges with bare electrodes are susceptible to plasma constriction at large discharge currents. This is undesirable for large-scale applications, even though large currents usually lead to abundant plasma reactive species and high application efficiency. In this letter, an experimental investigation is presented to demonstrate that plasma constriction can be mitigated by introducing dielectric barriers to the electrodes. The resulting atmospheric rf dielectric-barrier discharge is shown to operate in the γ mode of large discharge current while maintaining its discharge volume. This improves significantly plasma stability and the application potential.