Plasma stability control using dielectric barriers in radio-frequency atmospheric pressure glow discharges

It is widely accepted that electrode insulation is unnecessary for generating radio-frequency (rf) atmospheric pressure glow discharges (APGDs). It is also known that rf APGDs with large discharge current are susceptible to the glow-to-arc transition. In this letter, a computational study is presented to demonstrate that dielectric barriers provide an effective control over unlimited current growth and allow rf APGDs to be operated at very high current densities with little danger of the glow-to-arc transition. Characteristics of electrode sheaths are used to show that the stability control is achieved by forcing the plasma-containing electrode unit to acquire positive differential conductivity.