Single filament charge transfer and UV-emission properties of a cascaded dielectric barrier discharge (CDBD) set-up

We present a so-called cascaded dielectric barrier discharge (CDBD) set-up. Compared to standard single-gap discharge set-ups, the cascaded arrangement uses an additional UV-transparent dielectric to form two separated discharge gaps. These can interact electrically and by transmission of UV light. Investigation of plasma properties is done by emission spectroscopy and by measurement of the single filament charge transfer. Clear differences in CDBDs compared to single-gap discharge arrangements are demonstrated. The CDBD set-up shows a smaller single filament charge transfer if a UV-transparent dielectric is used and-for both gaps-we obtain a higher conversion efficiency in the UV range than for a single-gap discharge.