Conditions for uniform impact of the plasma of a runaway-electron-induced pulsed diffuse discharge on an anode

The subject matters in this work are (i) the spatial structure of a volume (diffuse) discharge initiated in atmospheric-pressure air in a heavily nonuniform electric field by nanosecond voltage pulses and (ii) the influence of its plasma on the surface of a plane aluminum anode. It is shown that a diffuse discharge initiated by nanosecond voltage pulses makes it possible to uniformly process the anode’s surface in atmospheric-pressure air in contrast to a spark discharge, which results in microcracking, locally changes the surface properties, and thereby degrades the surface.