The growth and decay of miniature dielectric barrier discharges in helium, neon, and argon

A knowledge of the evolution of dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) provides information on the nature of these poorly-understood discharges and a reference against which models of DBDs can be assessed. Here, we report the observation of the growth and decay of DBDs between parallel plate dielectric covered electrodes separated by 2.2 mm, in a 2.0-mm /spl times/ 5.0-mm /spl times/ 25.4-mm gas cell, in helium, neon, and argon by means of a gated image intensifier coupled to a CCD array.