THE BREAKDOWN AND GLOW PHASES DURING THE INITIATION OF DISCHARGES FORLAMPS

Citation
Lc. Pitchford et al., THE BREAKDOWN AND GLOW PHASES DURING THE INITIATION OF DISCHARGES FORLAMPS, Journal of applied physics, 82(1), 1997, pp. 112-119
Citations number
20
Categorie Soggetti
Physics, Applied
Journal title
ISSN journal
00218979
Volume
82
Issue
1
Year of publication
1997
Pages
112 - 119
Database
ISI
SICI code
0021-8979(1997)82:1<112:TBAGPD>2.0.ZU;2-I
Abstract
High intensity discharge (HID) lamps are often initiated by the applic ation of one or more short, high-voltage, breakdown pulses superimpose d on a 50 or 60 Hz generator voltage. A successful transition from the breakdown event to steady-state operating conditions in HID lamps req uires that the lamp-circuit system be adequate to sustain the plasma c reated during breakdown until the electrodes are heated to thermionic temperatures. In this article, we use a one-dimensional (in the axial direction) transient discharge model to study the conditions needed to sustain the cold-cathode discharge after a breakdown event has occurr ed. While the application of our one-dimensional model to real lamps i s approximate, we find that the model predictions are consistent with experimental results in HID lamps, a few of which are presented here. The main conclusion from this work is that, after breakdown, the volta ge necessary to sustain a glow discharge is dependent on the source im pedance, the gas composition, and on the plasma density created by the breakdown event. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.