Pulsed discharge plasma and its application is one of the promising directions in civilian areas of pulsed power technology. In order to promote the research and development of the theory and application technology for pulsed discharge plasma, in this paper, recent progress on the mechanism of nanosecond-pulse gas discharge and the characteristics and applications of typical pulsed plasma at the Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences is reviewed. Firstly, progress on mechanism of nanosecond-pulse discharge based on runaway electrons and measurement technology of runaway electrons is introduced. Then, the characteristics of three typical discharges, including direct-driven pulsed discharge, pulsed dielectric barrier discharge and pulsed plasma jet, are reviewed. Furthermore, typical plasma applications of pulsed plasma on surface modification and methane conversion are presented.

In this work, the propagation of the surface ionization wave (SIW) in the nanosecond pulsed surface dielectric barrier discharge with different dielectric materials and pulse repetition rates is investigated. The current waveforms at different locations along the route of the SIW propagation are obtained, based on a specially designed ground strip array geometry. The temporal evolution and spatial distribution of the electric field during the SIW propagation are measured by using the electric field induced second harmonic generation method. The distribution of the residual surface potential after the discharge is mapped with a Kelvin electrostatic probe, which verifies both the existence of the residual electric field and its opposite direction to that during the SIW propagation. It is found that with the dielectric material on which the surface charges decay faster, there are the well-pronounced primary and secondary SIWs with a higher velocity on the voltage rising edge and both the peak current and the peak electric field are also higher, with a less spatial attenuation along the SIW propagation route. It is demonstrated that the residual surface charges with the same polarity as the high-voltage pulse suppress the development of the SIW.