Spark ionization

Abstract: A survey is presented of papers published from 1964 through 1971 on the laser spark in gases. The authors consider the mechanisms whereby laser radiation breaks down a gas, the influence of the experimental conditions on the breakdown threshold, and the interaction of the spark plasma with the laser radiation. The parameters of the plasma during the time it is acted upon by the radiation and after the end of the laser pulse are determined. The possibilities of a number of technical applications of a laser spark in gases are discussed.

Abstract: This study is focused on the streamer-to-spark transition generated by an overvoltage nanosecond pulsed discharge under atmospheric pressure air in order to provide a quantitative insight into plasma-assisted ignition. The discharge is generated in atmospheric pressure air by the application of a positive high voltage pulse of 35 kV to pin-to-pin electrodes and a rise time of 5 ns. The generated discharge consists of a streamer phase with high voltage and high current followed by a spark phase characterized by a low voltage and a decreasing current in several hundreds of nanosecond. During the streamer phase, the gas temperature measured by optical emission spectroscopy related to the second positive system of nitrogen shows an ultra-fast gas heating up to 1200 K at 15 ns after the current rise. This ultra-fast gas heating, due to the quenching of electronically excited species by oxygen molecules, is followed by a quick dissociation of molecules and then the discharge transition to a spark. At this transition, the discharge contracts toward the channel axis and evolves into a highly conducting thin column. The spark phase is characterized by a high degree of ionization of nitrogen and oxygen atoms shown by the electron number density and temperature measured from optical emission spectroscopy measurements of N+ lines. Schlieren imaging and optical emission spectroscopy techniques provide the time evolution of the spark radius, from which the initial pressure in the spark is estimated. The expansion of the plasma is adiabatic in the early phase. The electronic temperature and density during this phase allows the determination of the isentropic coefficient. The value around 1.2-1.3 is coherent with the high ionization rate of the plasma in the early phase. The results obtained in this study provide a database and the initial conditions for the validation of numerical simulations of the ignition by plasma discharge. © 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd.