Effect of surface charge trapping on dielectric barrier discharge

The experiment of dielectric barrier discharge in a 2 mm air gap shows that the pressure range of a uniform discharge using polytetrafluoroethylene as barrier is much wider than that using quartz or alumina. The parameters of the charge trapped on the surface of these three dielectric barriers were obtained by surface charge measurement and thermally stimulated current measurement. It was found that surface charge trapping has much influence on the uniform discharge, i.e., the seed electrons necessary for uniform discharge may be produced by the desorption of the absorbed electrons in the shallow trap with energy level lower than 1 eV .