Abstract: Patterns are regular structures existed extensively in gas discharge system, which are formed by a series of complex interactions between discharge filaments. Using a specially-designed double gap dielectric barrier discharge device with argon used as the working gas, a dark spots pattern, a -like pattern and a #-like pattern with C_4v symmetry are obtained in this paper. The discharge characteristics of the patterns have been characterized by electrical and optical methods, and their spatiotemporal relevance are studied. The results show that the dark spots pattern is composed of the three parts: the central dark spot, the bright ring, the outer small dark spots on the background of the uniform discharge area. Moreover, the -like pattern and the #-like pattern are composed of five different transient sublattices: the central spot, the side spot, the diagonal vertex, the vertical line and the diagonal line. These results have certain reference value for the in-depth study of the patterns generated by dielectric barrier discharge, and can improve the understanding of more complex patterns in other fields.

Key words: dielectric barrier discharge, pattern, C_4v symmetry, spatiotemporal relevance