Determination of NO densities in a surface dielectric barrier discharge using optical emission spectroscopy

A new computationally assisted diagnostic to measure NO densities in atmospheric-pressure microplasmas by Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) is developed and validated against absorption spectroscopy in a volume Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD). The OES method is then applied to a twin surface DBD operated in N 2 to measure the NO density as a function of the O 2 admixture ( 0.1%– 1%). The underlying rate equation model reveals that NO ( A 2 Σ + ) is primarily excited by reactions of the ground state NO ( X 2 Π ) with metastables N 2 ( A 3 Σ u + ).A new computationally assisted diagnostic to measure NO densities in atmospheric-pressure microplasmas by Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) is developed and validated against absorption spectroscopy in a volume Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD). The OES method is then applied to a twin surface DBD operated in N 2 to measure the NO density as a function of the O 2 admixture ( 0.1%– 1%). The underlying rate equation model reveals that NO ( A 2 Σ + ) is primarily excited by reactions of the ground state NO ( X 2 Π ) with metastables N 2 ( A 3 Σ u + ).