Xenon excimer emission from pulsed microhollow cathode discharges

By applying electrical pulses of 20 ns duration to xenon microplasmas, gene rated by direct current microhollow cathode discharges, we were able to inc rease the xenon excimer emission by more than an order of magnitude over di rect current discharge excimer emission. For pulsed voltages in excess of 5 00 V, the optical power at 172 nm was found to increase exponentially with voltage. Largest values obtained were 2.75 W of vacuum-ultraviolet optical power emitted from a single microhollow cathode discharge in 400 Torr xenon with a 750 V pulse applied to a discharge. Highest radiative emittance was 15.2 W/cm(2). The efficiency for excimer emission was found to increase li nearly with pulsed voltages above 500 V reaching values of 20% at 750 V. (C ) 2001 American Institute of Physics.