Metastable and resonance atom densities in a positive column: II. Application to light source modelling

Abstract

Methods for the detailed description of new radiation and light sources based on low-pressure plasmas are required which also consider the spatial structure and the mechanisms of resonance radiation transport without considerable increase of computational effort. A general solution technique based on the reduction of the Holstein–Biberman integral equation to a system of linear equations is introduced to treat the radiation transport. This technique is applied in the framework of a self-consistent radially resolved model of the positive column of a cylindrical dc glow discharge at low pressure. A helium–xenon discharge which can be used as an efficient VUV-radiation source is studied as an example. The theoretical results for the radial density profiles of the resonance and metastable atoms of xenon are compared with absorption measurements providing atomic number densities for the levels of the 1s manifold. In addition, the solution technique for the Holstein–Biberman equation is validated by means of a comparison with Monte-Carlo simulations.