Magic Light Source Based on 3-D Stratified Glow Discharge

摘要

The positive column of glow discharges is used widely in light sources. The stratification of a glow discharge in tubes represents the alternating bright and dark regions in a positive column. The nature of bright regions is the luminescence of atoms or molecules excited by electron accelerated in electric field. The part of discharge power irradiated in visible region of the spectra, that allows using stratified gas discharge as a light source with spatially and/or temporally (for moving striations) modulated emission. Normally the stratification of the discharge in tubes is a parasitic phenomenon in the most applications e.g. in gas lasers. Recently the spherical stratification of a glow discharge was observed experimentally. As it was shown the spatial luminescence regions represents the number of thin closed surfaces nested into each other. The main physical peculiarity of 3-D discharge is that recombination processes occur in volume, contrary to the discharge in tube, where the recombination takes place on the walls. The visual stratification is observed in simple gases (Ar, N_2, He) with the admixture of high-molecular gases (e.g. acetone). The parameters of strata luminescence depends on gas pressure, gas composition, current density distribution and geometry of the discharge gap. The changing of above parameters allows verifying intensity, colour, shape and topology of luminescence region.