Preliminary results of the research on one atmosphere glow discharge

Summary form only given, as follows. A device for producing a glow discharge plasma at one atmosphere was built and tested. The discharge, powered by an AC source capable of providing a few tens of kV voltage with a few kilohertz frequency, was generated between two plane electrodes covered with 3 mm Pyrex insulating plates. The diameter of the electrode varies from 5 to 15 cm and the gas gap from 2 to 5 mm. The experiments confirmed that it is much easier to obtain one atmosphere uniform glow discharge (OAUGD) in He than in the air. OAUGD could be easily produced in a 5 mm helium gap with an applied voltage, Va, of 1.4 kV rms at a frequency, f, from 1.1 to 5 kHz, while it could only be observed in an air gap shorter than 2 mm with a much higher Va at a much more narrow f range. The glow discharge current is characterized by one peak per half cycle, which begins to appear at the time short after the polarity inversion of the sinusoid-like applied voltage and lasts a few tens us. The current peak varies from some mA to a few tens mA, depending on Va's amplitude and frequency. Comparing to that in a 5 mm helium gap, the discharge in a 5 mm air gap behaves much differently. When Va2.5 kHz and a much deformed capacitive current for f