Evolution of Striation in Pulsed Glow Discharges

In this work, striations in pulsed glow discharges are studied by experiments and Particle-In-Cell/Monte Carlo Collision (PIC/MCC) simulation. The spatio-temporal evolution of the potential and the electron energy during the discharge are analyzed. The processes of striation formation in pulsed glow discharges and dielectric barrier discharges (DBD) are compared. The results show that the mechanisms of striation in pulsed DC discharge and DBD are similar to each other. The evolution of electron energy distribution function before and after the striation formation indicates that the striation results from the potential well of the space charge. During a pulsed breakdown, the striations are formed one by one towards the anode in a weak field channel. This indicates that the formation of striations in a pulsed discharge depends on the flow of modulated electrons.