The consequences of remnant surface charges on microdischarge spreading in dielectric barrier discharges

Dielectric barrier discharges (DBD's) consist of filamentary microdischarges (10s-100s mu m diameter) randomly distributed between the electrodes. Charging of the dielectric terminates the microdischarge by removing voltage from the gap. When the applied voltage changes polarity, the residual dielectric charges from the previous pulse can enhance the gap voltage so that a more intense electron avalanche occurs. In this paper, results from a two-dimensional model of a DBD are used to demonstrate the consequences of dielectric charging on spreading of the microdischarges.