THE ELECTRON ENERGY DISTRIBUTION AND PLASMA PARAMETERS OF AN ICETRON LAMP

摘要

The absence of electrodes in rf fluorescent lamps allows for reduction of buffer gas pressure by an order of magnitude compared to that in conventional fluorescent lamps. This results in a comparable efficiency for rf and conventional lamps although power density in rf lamps is an order of magnitude higher than that of conventional linear fluorescent lamps. The power loading and pR product are similar in all commercial rf lamps and in compact and subminiature electroded fluorescent lamps. Therefore the EEPF and, thus, electron kinetic phenomena are expected to be similar to all these lamps defined as high intensity fluorescent lamps. A remarkable feature of these lamps is that the EEPF is Maxwellian at electron energies far exceeding the excitation energy. This could drastically simplify lamp modeling, reducing it to a level of fluid dynamics with easier handling of the multi-dimensional aspects of rf fluorescent lamps.