The regulation of memory effect and its influence on discharge properties of a dielectric barrier discharge driven by bipolar pulse at atmospheric-pressure nitrogen

The regulation of memory effect that the residual charges generated during and after discharge act on the initiation and development of subsequent discharge is explored by adjusting the pulse parameters, which have an influence on the discharge characteristics. The memory effect is quantified by the measurement of 'wall voltage' through a series of reference capacitors. The influences of memory effect on the discharge properties corresponding to rising/falling time 50–500 ns, pulse width 0.5–1.5 μs, and frequency 200–600 Hz are analyzed. It is found that the 'wall voltage' increases from 1.4 kV to 2.4 kV with rising/falling time from 50 ns to 500 ns, it varies in the range of 0.18 kV with frequency of 200–600 Hz, and 0.17 kV with pulse width of 0.5–1.5 μs. The propagation velocity of wavelike ionization under the negative pulse slows down from 2184 km s⁻¹ to 1026 km s⁻¹ as the rising/falling time increases from 50 ns to 500 ns due to the weakening of the electric field by the surface memory effect. More intense and uniform emission can be achieved through faster rising/falling time and higher frequency based on the volume memory effect, while pulse width has less influence on the emission uniformity. Furthermore, similar laws are obtained for spectral and discharge intensity. Therefore, the memory effect is most effectively regulated by rising/falling time, and the discharge properties are affected by the surface and volume memory effect.