Improvement of ozone yielding rate in atmospheric pressure barrier discharges using a time-modulated power supply

The ozone (O/sub 3/) yielding rate of a high-pressure thin-gap barrier discharge was improved using a time-modulated power supply. The maximum improvement reached more than 20% compared with a continuous-wave power supply. The rate was strongly dependent on the discharge-off time, with the optimum one corresponding to the O/sub 2/ removal time from the discharge space. Dependence of the yielding rate on the off-time was numerically calculated using O and O/sub 3/ rate equations.