Acoustic characteristics of a barrier-discharge XeCl excilamp

Abstract

The generation of an acoustic signal by means of voltage pulses (f = 15 kHz) applied to the electrodes of a barrier-discharge excilamp based on a Xe/Cl2 = (50–500)/1 mixture kept at a pressure of 5–500 Torr is studied. It is shown that, from the time variation of the acoustic signal intensity, one can judge the time instant the excilamp starts operating in a steady mode. Optimal (in power and efficiency) operating conditions of the excilamp are found (Xe/Cl2 = 240/1, p = 98 Torr, η ≈ 9.5%). It is experimentally demonstrated that the discharge energy at a low pressure is spent largely on heating the gas. This is indicative of the volume heat release and volume glow discharge (as the pressure grows, the efficiency of this source of energy consumption drops and more and more energy is spent on acoustic vibration excitation). Under higher pressures, the Fourier spectrum of the acoustic signal becomes richer, the intensity of the spectrum rises, and the dispersion of the signal grows. At very high pressures, the intensity of the acoustic signal drops to a level corresponding to the natural vibrations of the excilamp envelope without the discharge (when the discharge is quenched, the Fourier spectrum of the signal becomes depleted and contains only harmonics corresponding to the carrier frequency of voltage pulses from the power source).