Popis: |
A discharge in high-pressure xenon excilamps is studied experimentally and theoretically. In the absence of an additional source of xenon preionization, the volume discharge is produced in the form of a diffuse cloud or diffuse cones at pressures of several hundreds of torrs. Under these conditions, radiation is emitted with a high efficiency within the VUV spectral range. The results of simulations have shown that, at the pressure on the order of 100 Torr and the field voltage on the order of 10 kV/cm, the established near-cathode layer is on the order of several tens of microns, which is much less than the wire radius. The cathode layer, the potential drop in the near-cathode area is much lower than the voltage applied to the discharge gap. We put forward a hypothesis that the formation of the volume discharge is due to the presence of dense plasma in the near-cathode area, and this plasma plays the role of a plasma cathode.© (2003) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only. |