Mechanisms of Streamer Propagation Affected by Driven Voltage Polarity in a Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet

A two-dimensional self-consistent fluid model is used to investigate the effects of DC-voltage polarity in plasma initiation and propagation of helium plasma jet. The simulation results indicate that the difference in initial breakdown for the positive jet and negative jet leads to a difference in the electron density of about 4 orders of magnitude, even with the same initial electric field, which also influences the subsequent propagation. In the propagation process of negative jets, the ionization process exists in a longer gas channel behind the streamer head. In addition, the drift process to the infinite grounded electrode driven by the electric field results in higher energy consumption in the ionization process. However, in the positive jet, the ionization process mainly exists in the streamer head. Therefore, the differences in the initial breakdown and propagation process make the electric field intensity and the ionization weaker in the streamer head of the negative jet, which explains the weaker and shorter appearance of the negative jet compared to the positive jet. Our model can adequately reproduce the experimental results, viz. a bullet-like propagation in the positive jet and a continuous plasma plume in the negative jet. Furthermore, it also indicates that the streamer velocity shows the same variations as the electron drift velocity for both positive and negative jets.