Influence of rise time on the temporal evolution characteristics of pulsed discharge plasma

Continuous pulses with adjustable rise time are used to generate the discharge. This study investigates the transient breakdown characteristics and measures the time-resolved plasma parameters. With a shorter pulse rise time, both the breakdown voltage and breakdown current increase, and the enhanced Laplacian electric field concurrently leads to the formation of plasma with a higher electron density and excitation temperature. Higher reversed voltage and current are observed at the pulse fall time due to a stronger local electric field. Although a higher second peak in the excitation temperature is attributed to the local electric field, it does not affect the electron density, which continues to drop until the next pulse breakdown.