Excimer emission from high pressure microhollow cathode discharges in xenon
- Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk, VA (United States). Physical Electronics Research Inst.
By reducing the diameter of the cathode opening in hollow cathode discharge geometry to values on the order of 100 micrometers the authors were able to operate the discharged in argon and xenon in a direct current mode at atmospheric pressure. The micro-discharges have been shown to emit excimer radiation peaking at wavelengths of 130 nm and 170 nm, respectively. They have in this study particularly concentrated on the xenon VUV radiation. The emission from a 100 micrometers microhollow cathode discharge in xenon at pressures between 40 and 760 Torr was measured over the spectral range from 130 nm to 400 nm. At 40 Torr, the 147 nm Xenon resonance line dominates the emission spectra. There are some indications of the first continuum which extends from the resonance line towards longer wavelength. The second excimer continuum peaking at 170 nm appears at higher pressures. At pressures greater than 300 Torr, it dominates the emission spectra up to the longest recorded wavelength of 400 nm. In order to determine the absolute values of the excimer radiation the emission was compared to that of calibrated UV sources: a Hg lamp and a Deuterium lamp. The results gave them a value of the efficiency defined as the ratio of the optical power of the excimer emitter to the input electrical power, of 5.3% and 6.3%, respectively. A single discharge, which was in this experiment run with a current of 3 mA at a forward voltage of 200 to 250 V, emits therefore {approximately}40 mW of VUV radiation concentrated in the spectral range from 150 to 190 nm. The possibility to operate the discharges in parallel opens the possibility to fabricate scalable flat panel excimer lamps.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 338523
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-980601--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Emission of excimer radiation from direct current, high-pressure hollow cathode discharges