Non-monotonic radial distribution of light emission in argon positive column at medium pressures

摘要

We report a new effect of non-monotonic radial distribution of light emission in argon positive column discovered by numerical simulations and theoretical analysis. An off-axis maximum of direct excitation of light emitting levels is caused by kinetics of fast electrons in the pressure range 1R<10 mTorr cm (p is the gas pressure and R is the tube radius). To our knowledge this effect has not yet been observed in experiments, and might be of interest to lighting applications.