The influence of an external cavity on the emission spectrum of a mercury germicidal lamp

The spectrum of emission from the cylindrical duralumin cavity of a TUV 8wG8 T5 UV industrial germicidal mercury lamp is studied. It is shown that, due to reflection from the inner surface of the cavity and reabsorption in the gas discharge, the resonance line of a mercury atom is significantly weakened. The dependence of the resonance line intensity on the discharge current has a maximum, and the discharge current corresponding to the intensity maximum depends on the reflection coefficient of the inner surface of the cavity.     

Exploration of the Townsend regime by discharge light emission in a gas discharge deviceExploration of the Townsend regime by discharge light emission in a gas discharge deviceExploration of the Townsend regime by discharge light emission in a gas discharge deviceExploration of the Townsend regime by discharge light emission in a gas discharge deviceExploration of the Townsend regime by discharge light emission in a gas discharge device

The Townsend discharge mechanism has been explored in a planar microelectronic gas discharge device （MGDD） with different applied voltages U and interelectrode distance d under various pressures in air. The anode and the cathode of the MGDD are formed by a transparent SnO2 covered glass and a GaAs semiconductor, respectively. In the experiments, the discharge is found to be unstable just below the breakdown voltage Ub, whereas the discharge passes through a homo- geneous stable Townsend mode beyond the breakdown voltage. The measurements are made by an electrical circuit and a CCD camera by recording the currents and light emission （LE） intensities. The intensity profiles, which are converted from the 3D light emission images along the semiconductor diameter, have been analysed for different system parameters. Dif- ferent instantaneous conductivity ~t regimes are found below and beyond the Townsend region. These regimes govern the current and spatio-temporal LE stabilities in the plasma system. It has been proven that the stable LE region increases up to 550 Torr as a function of pressure for small d. If the active area of the semiconductor becomes larger and the interlectrode distance d becomes smaller, the stable LE region stays nearly constant with pressure.     

Anomalous behavior of optogalvanic signal in a miniature neon discharge lamp

A strong optogalvanic effect has been observed in a negative glow of a miniature neon discharge lamp using tunable pulse dye laser pumped by a copper vapor laser. A comparative study on temporal evolution of optogalvanic signal in a positive and negative dynamic resistance region of the discharge is described. Dye laser beam was tuned to various neon transitions 1s_i → 2p_j (Paschen notations) within 570-617 nm wavelength range. Anomalous behavior of optogalvanic signal was observed at 588.2 nm for (1s₅ → 2p₂) neon transition at low discharge current (<220 μA). This anomalous behavior is the attributes of damped oscillations of optogalvanic signal that correlate with negative dynamic resistance (dV/di < 0) of the discharge. Penning ionization at low discharge current and small energy mismatch is assumed to be the main cause of the negative dynamic resistance. Penning ionization process has been explained by resonantly ionizing energy transfer via collisions between neon buffer gas atoms in the lowest metastable state (1s₅) and electrode sputtered atoms in ground state using their partial energy level diagram.     

Electronic states of the CeO molecule: Absorption,emission, and laser spectroscopy

The electronic spectrum of the CeO molecule is characterized by the existence of many 0-0 bands resulting from transitions between various Ω components of excited states and the 16 lower Ω states which arise from the lowest configuration… (4f)(6s). Classical studies of rotational structure of absorption and emission spectra have been extended, and argon-ion and tunable dye (coumarin 460, rhodamine 6G, rhodamine 101) lasers have been used to excite known transitions in bands which had previously been rotationally analyzed. The resulting fluorescence spectra have been used to establish the relative energies of the lower states. By tuning the lasers to excite analyzed transitions from different known electronic states it has been possible to determine the energies of 16 low-lying states, to assign quantum numbers to 14 with certainty, and to suggest assignments for the other 2. The resulting energy level diagram of lower states is discussed and shown to correlate well with the 4f6s configuration of the Ce²⁺ ion. From the energies of the low-lying states, those of the higher excited states are calculated and in some cases new values of vibrational and rotational constants are derived.     

Interaction of a low-pressure mercury discharge with the discharge tube wall

The darkening of soda-lime glass envelopes of low-pressure mercury discharge tubes has nothing to do with the formation of sodium amalgam on the inner surface of the tube. It is, however, connected with the diffusion of mercury ions into the glass of the tube. By applying a high negative voltage to part of the outer surface of a burning tube a sodium depleted region is created at the corresponding part of the inner surface. After removal of the high-voltage electrode and continued normal operation the rate of darkening of the sodium-depleted part of the tube is about 50 times larger than the rate observed for the normal parts of the same tube.     

Observation of crossing effect in emission spectra from a copper lamp

The intensity ratio I_σ/I_π of the 3249 Å line emitted from a copper lamp was found to change with magnetic field strength, and its dip observed at 2.9 kG was ascribed to a crossing of its Zeeman frequencies.     

Comparison of discharge lamp and laser pumped cesium magnetometers

We have performed a comparison of laser (LsOPM) and lamp (LpOPM) pumped cesium vapor magnetometers. Although the LsOPM operated 50% above its shot-noise limit we found an intrinsic sensitivity of 15 fT/√Hz and 25 fT/√Hz for the LsOPM and the LpOPM, respectively. Two modes of operation, viz. the phase-stabilized and the self-oscillating modes, were investigated and found to yield a similar performance. We have compared the performance of the LsOPM and the LpOPM directly by simultaneous measurements of field fluctuations of a 2-μT magnetic field inside a multilayer magnetic shield and have used one of the magnetometers for an active field stabilization. In the stabilized mode we found a gradient instability of 25 fT within an integration time of 100 s, which represents an upper limit of the long-term stability of the magnetometers. Our research is motivated by the need for an improved control of magnetic fields and gradients in a planned neutron electric dipole experiment.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

The pulsed optogalvanic effect in a low-pressure mercury discharge

Experiments are described in which a low-pressure mercury discharge is irradiated with a 10 ns dye laser pulse tuned resonant to one of 6 ³P-7 ³S₁ transitions. The time behaviour of the induced optogalvanic effect is found to be dependent on the value of the ballast resistance in the discharge circuit. The qualitative explanation for this phenomenon is that the ratio of the relative change in the electron temperature and the relative change in electron density depends on the value of the ballast resistance.     

Laser action of Na2 molecules in a sodium high pressure discharge lamp

Rutherford backscattering has been used to measure the lattice positions occupied by Pb following room temperature implantation into silicon. The data provide information on the size and deposition of amorphous zones in relation to the distribution of implanted Pb.     

Single photon emission from a single molecule

Photon emission from a single molecule at room temperature exhibits nonclassical features. Continuous wave fluorescence excitation provides antibunching in the emitted photons sequence as a signature of the property to only emit one photon at a time. A short pulsed excitation can then produce single photons on demand, with an overall quantum efficiency up to 4.5% in our experimental setup. Direct measurement of the Mandel parameter Q(T) for an observation period of duration T follows a subpoissonian statistics on short time scale and superpoissonian statistics on longer time scale. The latter is attributed to blinking in the fluorescence due to the occurence of a metastable molecular triplet state. To cite this article: F. Treussart et al., C. R. Physique 3 (2002) 501–508.     

Transient coherent emission from a dressed molecule

Exact fourth virial coeficients have been computed for inverse power potentials over the full range of powers which allow thermodynamic stability. Values are given for the exact virial coefficient, together with those from the Percus-Yevick, hypernetted chain and thermodynamically self-consistent approximations. Comparisons show that the thermodynamically self-consistent approximation gives a good account of the variation of the fourth virial coefficient over the full range of inverse powers. A new consistency condition is defined using the pair and triplet direct correlation function, and is shown to be well satisfied by the thermodynamically self-consistent approximation.     

On the emission of X-rays in a FXR discharge

Pinhole camera exposures of a flash X-ray (FXR) discharge show that X-radiation is emitted from (i) the plane parallel electrode surfaces, (ii) a cloud outside the anode centre, and (iii) the cylindrical anode surface. It is found that the cathode X-radiation is secondary and that secondary X-radiation is also emitted by the wall of the discharge tube. The X-radiation from the cylindrical anode surface is found to be due to the bombardment of photoelectrons emanating from the tube wall.     

Influencing the angular emission of a single molecule

We present the first experimental proof for the influence of a nearby nanosized metal object on the angular photon emission by a single molecule. Using a novel angular sensitive detection scheme, we directly quantify the redirection of angular emission for different molecular dipole orientations as an object is scanned laterally over the molecule at different heights. An excellent agreement between experiments and 2D-numerical simulations is found for molecules oriented perpendicular to the sample, whereas, for parallel orientations, the observed behavior contradicts the calculated behavior.