Abstract. Positive and negative streamers are studied in ambient air at 1 bar; they emerge from a needle electrode placed 40 mm above a planar electrode. The amplitudes of the applied voltage pulses range from 5 to 96 kV; most pulses have rise times of 30 ns or shorter. Diameters, velocities and energies of the streamers are measured. Two regimes are identified; a low voltage regime where only positive streamers appear and a high voltage regime where both positive and negative streamers exist. Below 5 kV, no streamers emerge. In the range from 5 to 40 kV, positive streamers form, while the negative discharges only form a glowing cloud at the electrode tip, but no streamers.

Abstract. Positive streamers are thought to propagate by photo-ionization of which the parameters depend on the nitrogen:oxygen ratio. Therefore we study streamers in nitrogen with 20%, 0.2% and 0.01% oxygen and in pure nitrogen, as well as in pure oxygen and argon. Our new experimental set-up guarantees contamination of the pure gases to be well below 1 ppm. Streamers in oxygen are difficult to measure as they emit considerably less light in the sensitivity range of our fast ICCD camera than the other gasses. Streamers in pure nitrogen and in all nitrogen/oxygen mixtures look generally similar, but become somewhat thinner and branch more with decreasing oxygen content. In pure nitrogen the streamers can branch so much that they resemble feathers. This feature is even more pronounced in pure argon, with approximately 10 2 hair tips/cm 3 in the feathers at 200 mbar; this density can be interpreted as the free electron density creating avalanches towards the streamer stem. It is remarkable that the streamer velocity is essentially the same for similar voltage and pressure in all nitrogen/oxygen mixtures as well as in pure nitrogen, while the oxygen concentration and therefore the photo-ionization lengths vary by more than five orders of magnitude. Streamers in argon have essentially the same velocity as well. The physical similarity of streamers at different pressures is confirmed in all gases; the minimal diameters are smaller than in earlier measurements.Submitted to: J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

The propagation and branching of pulsed positive corona streamers in a short gap is observed with high resolution in space and time. The appearance of the pre-breakdown phenomena can be controlled by the electrode configuration, the gas composition and the impedance of the pulsed power circuit. In a point-wire gap the positive corona shows much more branching than in the parallel plane gap with a protrusion. In air, the branching is more pronounced than in argon. The pulsed power circuit appears to operate in two modes, either as an inductive circuit creating a lower number of thick streamers or as a resistive circuit giving a higher number of thin streamers. A possible cause for branching is electrostatic repulsion of two parts of the streamer head. The electric field at the streamer head is limited, the maximum values found are ∼170 kV cm −1 in air and ∼100 kV cm −1 in argon. At these maximum field strengths, the electrons have 5-10 eV energy, so the ionization is dominated by two-step processes. Differences between argon and ambient air in the field strength at which streamers propagate are ascribed to the difference in de-excitation processes in noble and molecular gases. The fact that the pulsed power circuit can control the streamer structure is important for applications, but this effect must also be taken into account in fundamental studies of streamer propagation and branching.

The diameter and branching structure of positive streamers in ambient air are investigated with a fast iCCD camera. We use different pulsed power circuits and find that they generate different spatial streamer structures. The electrodes have a point-plane geometry and a distance of 40 or 80 mm, and the peak voltages over the discharge gap are up to 60 kV. Depending on circuit and peak voltage, we observe streamers with diameters varying gradually between 0.2 and 2.5 mm. The streamer velocity increases with the diameter, ranging from 0.07 to 1.5 mm ns −1 , while the current density within the streamers stays almost constant. The thicker streamers extend much further before they branch than the thinner ones. The pulsed power supplies are a switched capacitor supply with an internal resistance of 1 k and a transmission line transformer supply with an impedance of 200 ; additional resistors change the impedance as well as the voltage rise time in the case of the capacitor supply. We observe that short rise times and low impedance create thick streamers close to the pointed electrode, while a longer rise time as well as a higher impedance create thinner streamers at the same peak voltage over the discharge.

Abstract. In this contribution, nanosecond pulsed discharges in N 2 and N 2 /0.9% H 2 O at atmospheric pressure (at 300 K) are studied with time-resolved imaging, optical emission spectroscopy and Rayleigh scattering. A 170 ns high voltage pulse is applied across two pin-shaped electrodes at a frequency of 1 kHz. The discharge consists of three phases: an ignition phase, a spark phase and a recombination phase. During the ignition phase the emission is mainly caused by molecular nitrogen (N 2 (C-B)). In the spark and recombination phase mainly atomic nitrogen emission is observed. The emission when H 2 O is added is very similar, except the small contribution of H α and the intensity of the molecular N 2 (C-B) emission is less.The gas temperature during the ignition phase is about 350 K, during the discharge the gas temperature increases and is 1 µs after ignition equal to 750 K. The electron density is obtained by the broadening of the N emission line at 746 nm and, if water is added, the H α line. The electron density reaches densities up to 4 · 10 24 m −3 . Addition of water has no significant influence on the gas temperature and electron density.The diagnostics used in this study are described in detail and the validity of different techniques is compared with previously reported results of other groups.

A new method for the removal of harmful organic molecules from water is described. A low power corona discharge is created over the aqueous solution. Chemically active species diffuse into the water and then oxidize the target compound, which in this case is the model compound phenol. The energy consumption per removed phenol molecule is one order of magnitude lower compared to the discharge techniques that create a plasma in the water. The reaction mechanism of the conversion is shown by measuring the ozone concentration over the water, the intermediate/final oxidation products and the release of CO2 from the water. Indications are found that the discharge is more than merely an ozone generator.

The production of OH in a nanosecond pulsed filamentary discharge generated in pin–pin geometry in a He–H2O mixture is studied by time and spatially resolved laser-induced fluorescence. Apart from the OH density the gas temperature and the electron density are also measured. Depending on the applied voltage the discharge is in a different mode. The maximum electron densities in the low- (1.3 kV) and high-density (5 kV) modes are 2 × 1021 m−3 and 7 × 1022 m−3, respectively. The gas temperature in both modes does not exceed 600 K. In the low-density mode the maximum OH density is at the centre of the discharge filament, while in the high-density mode the largest OH density is observed on the edge of the discharge. A chemical model is used to obtain an estimate of the absolute OH density. The chemical model also shows that charge exchange and dissociative recombination can explain the production of OH in the case of the high-density mode.

Nijdam, S.; Moerman, J.S.; Briels, T.M.P.; van Veldhuizen, E.M.; Ebert, U.M. Document VersionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of Record (includes final page, issue and volume numbers)Please check the document version of this publication:• A submitted manuscript is the author's version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website.• The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review.• The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.• Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.• You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Standard photographs of streamer discharges show a two-dimensional projection. Here, we present stereophotographic images that resolve their three-dimensional structure. We describe the stereoscopic setup and evaluation, and we present results for positive streamer discharges in air at 0.2-1 bar in a point-plane geometry with a gap distance of 14 cm and a voltage pulse of 47 kV. In this case, an approximately Gaussian distribution of branching angles of 43°Ϯ 12°is found; these angles do not significantly depend on the distance from the needle or on the gas pressure.