Ignition dynamics of radio frequency discharge in atmospheric pressure cascade glow discharge

A cascade glow discharge in atmospheric helium was excited by a microsecond voltage pulse and a pulse-modulated radio frequency(RF) voltage, in which the discharge ignition dynamics of the RF discharge burst was investigated experimentally. The spatio-temporal evolution of the discharge, the ignition time and optical emission intensities of plasma species of the RF discharge burst were investigated under different time intervals between the pulsed voltage and RF voltage in the experiment. The results show that by increasing the time interval between the pulsed discharge and RF discharge burst from 5 μs to 20 μs, the ignition time of the RF discharge burst is increased from 1.6 μs to 2.0 μs, and the discharge spatial profile of RF discharge in the ignition phase changes from a double-hump shape to a bell-shape. The light emission intensity at 706 nm and 777 nm at different time intervals indicates that the RF discharge burst ignition of the depends on the number of residual plasma species generated in the pulsed discharges.