1.5-kW high peak power and 140-ns short-pulse krypton excimer lamp using a pulsed silent discharge

Abstract

Abstract A 1 .5 kW high peak power and 140 ns short pulse krypton excimer lamp in VUV spectral region has been developed using a pulsed silent-discharge. In such a high peak power operation, penning ionizationwas a dominant destructive process as in the same case of a rare gas excimer laser operation. 1. Introduction Recently there have been considerable demands for a development of efficient vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) incoherent light sources which have a substantial emission power with a compact size. Such incoherent VUV light sources have been often used in the recent advanced application fields, especiallymaterial processings and photochemistry. [1 -3] Currently available VUV light sources such as deuteriumand mercury lamps limit their spectral and temporal emission characteristics. Rare gas excimers are one of a few efficient media for generating VUV emission and show different emission spectra for each rare gas species, Ar2* ( 1 26 nm), Kr2* (147 nm) and Xe2* (172 nm). Rare gas excimer lasers have been demonstrated with very high peak powers by using a huge electronbeam machine. [4-6] Rare gas excimer point light sources have also been developed by using a pulsed