Self-Organized Patterns in Gas-Discharge: Particle-Like Behaviour and Dissipative Solitons

Abstract

The understanding of self-organise patterns in spatially extended nonlinear dissipative systems (SOPs) is one of the most challenging subjects in modem natural sciences. In the last 20 years it turned out that research in the field of low temperature gas-discharge can help to obtain insight into important aspect of SOPs. At the same time, due to the practical relevance of plasma systems one might expect interesting applications. In the present paper the focus is on selforganised filamentary patterns in planar dc and ac systems with high ohmic and dielectric barrier, respectively. -In the discharge plane of these systems filaments show up as spots which are also referred to as dissipative solitons (DSs). In many respect experimentally detected DSs exhibit particle-like behaviour. Among other things, isolated stationary or travelling DSs, stationary, travelling or rotating "molecules" and various kinds of many-body systems have been observed. Also scattering, generation and annihilation of DSs are frequent phenomena. -At least some of these patterns can be described quantitatively in terms of a drift diffusion model. It is also demonstrated that a simple reaction diffusion model allows for an intuitive understanding of many of the observed phenomena. At the same time this model is the basis for a theoretical foundation of the particle picture and the experimentally observed universal behaviour of SOPs. -Finally some hypothetical applications are discussed.

Synergetic aspects of gas-discharge: lateral patterns in dc systems with a high ohmic barrier

“…The target patterns are closely related to rotating outrunning spirals, which were first described in [48,56,58].-Further early work on pattern formation in DBD systems was reported e.g. in [55] and among the various more recent works we mention [59][60][61][62]. Very nice later results on ac systems were also reported e.g.…”

“…In the quasi 2D device as shown in figure 3(b) travelling filaments are also observed [47,62,88,128,129,[131][132][133][134][135]. In this context it is of interest to study experimentally the corresponding bifurcation from an isolated stationary filament to a travelling one.…”

“…Next we report on the interaction processes with a change in the number of participating filaments. Here, the crucial point is that the filaments are generated or annihilated as a whole, while the size and the shape of the surviving filaments [46], see also [47,62]. [88,129], see also [47,58,62,125,130,131].…”

“…At the same time any generation of a filament is accompanied by a jump in the characteristic, the latter displaying the total current I through the device in dependence of the voltage drop U = U 0 −R 0 I. Parameters: D ≈ 11 mm; d ≈ 1.5 mm; He gas at p = 300 hPa; T = 4 °C; Si:Au semiconductor cathode, a sc ≈ 0.5 mm, ρ sc = 6 • 10 3 Ω m; R 0 ≈ 90 kΩ [46],. see also[47,62].…”

Dissipative solitons and backfiring in the electrooxidation of CO on Pt

“…Among the most important examples of such dissipative structures are electrical excitation pulses in nervous tissues, which are indispensable to life for all animate beings with nervous systems 1 . Other prominent examples include the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction 2 , the heterogeneously catalyzed CO oxidation on Pt under low pressure conditions 3 4 , gas discharge devices 5 , Ca 2+ ion waves in oocytes 6 , or corroding metals 7 . The theoretical description of an elementary excitation pulse has been successfully accomplished with 2-components activator-inhibitor models, most notably the FitzHugh-Nagumo model, and by now the properties as well as the interactions of such basic pulses are well understood, in particular their annihilation upon collision 8 .…”