Fundamental Research on Mercuryless Fluorescent Lamps I – Inner Electrode Operation with Pulsed Discharge –

Abstract

The characteristics of xenon-neon discharge fluorescent lamps with inner electrodes are described in this paper. All lamps were operated by pulsed discharge. When the partial pressure of neon is high, the ignition voltage and operation voltage are low because of the Penning effect. Thus, a higher mixing ratio of neon is desirable for lower ignition and operation voltages. However, the luminance of phosphor increases as the mixing ratio of xenon increases. As the pressure of xenon increases, the second peak of phosphor emission in afterglow increases. These increases seem to be caused by the VUV light of xenon excimers. Therefore, though there is the problem of ion bombardment of the cathode under a high operation voltage, the pulsed discharge of the xenon-neon mixture at a high xenon mixing ratio is desirable in mercuryless fluorescent lamps because a strong radiation of xenon excimer is obtained.