Excilamps: efficient sources of spontaneous UV and VUV radiation

The results of research into high-power, high-efficiency noble-gas-halide excilamps using glow, capacitive, and barrier discharges for the excitation sources are presented. The maximum radiation powers and minimum consumption are achieved with glow discharge lamps. An excilamp with an average radiation power of 1.6 kW on KrCl* molecules (λ = 222 nm) and 1.1 kW on XeCl* molecules (λ = 308 nm) is developed, whose energy conversion efficiency exceeds 10%. The use of an electrodeless capacitive discharge leads to sealed off excilamps with a simple emitter design, which have a power of 1 to 10 W and a service life of about 2500 h and more. Barrier-discharge excilamps possess both high energy parameters (> 100 W m−1) and a long service life. Excilamps can find wide practical applications as new powerful sources of UV and VUV radiation.