Two-dimensional simulation of streamer discharge including the vibrationally excited molecules effects

Abstract

The vibrationally excited molecules play an important role in the plasma process. We numerically calculate the two-dimensional point-to-plane streamer propagation and the vibrational kinetics in atmospheric pressure dry-air (80% N2, 20% O2) environment. The calculated streamer discharge characteristics, such as the mean streamer velocity and the streamer channel radius, show good agreement with an experimentally obtained results. The calculation shows that vibrational temperature for N2 is higher than for O2 and these two temperature have a different spatial distribution.