Self-organized pattern formation of an atmospheric pressure plasma jet in a dielectric barrier discharge configuration

This letter reports the observation of self-organized patterns formed in a 29 mm wide atmospheric pressure plasma jet. By altering the gas flow rate and/or the applied voltage, the plasma jet is seen to have at least three different modes, namely, a diffuse-looking discharge, a self-organized discharge, and an unstable discharge with randomly occurring plasma channels. The self-organized discharge mode is characterized by several bright plasma channels embedded in a diffuse and dim plasma background. These plasma channels are regularly spaced from each other and their self-organized patterns are shown to evolve abruptly. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.