Nonlinear phenomena in dielectric barrier discharges: pattern, striation and chaos

The nonlinear phenomenon is very popular in dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasmas. There are at least three kinds of spatial and temporal nonlinear phenomena appearing synchronously or asynchronously in DBDs, i.e. self-organized patterns, striations and chaos. This paper describes the recent research and progress in understanding the nature of these nonlinear phenomena. Patterns are macroscopic structures with certain spatial and/or temporal periodicities generated through self-organization of microscopic parameters. The physics of patterns in DBDs is mainly associated with lateral dynamic behaviors or the lateral non-local effect of charged particles resulting in the lateral development or non-uniformity of discharge. Striations are ionization waves with unique properties determined by transport phenomena, ionization processes and electron kinetics in current-carrying plasmas. The physics of striations in DBDs is mainly associated with the advances in non-local electron kinetics in spatially inhomogeneous plasmas. Chaos is a kind of random and non-periodic phenomenon occurring in a determined dynamic system, following a series of certain rules while exhibiting random locomotion, and is regarded as an intrinsic and ubiquitous phenomenon in a nonlinear dynamic system. An evolution trajectory including period-doubling bifurcation to chaos was observed in DBDs or DBD-derived plasmas. In a common sense, it is believed that the formation of all the three nonlinear phenomena in a DBD system should be related to the non-local transversal and/or longitudinal dynamics of space charges (i.e. non-local effect) or the localized electric field interaction. Future work is still needed on the underlying physics and should be directed to pursuing the unification of these nonlinear phenomena in DBD.