Investigation of Discharge Phenomena in Microscale Capillary Plasma Electrode Discharges

Capillary plasma electrode discharge (CPED), which we have used to obtain high electron density nonequilibrium plasma, is a novel concept to suppress the glow-to-arc transition by stabilizing the cathode fall region of the discharge. The characteristic properties of CPED configuration have been investigated and compared to the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) structure. Breakdown voltages and - characteristics of the DBD and the CPED structures have been studied for various gas pressure of helium.