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The effect of external visible light on the breakdown voltage of a long discharge tube

  • Spectroscopy of Atoms and Molecules
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Abstract

The breakdown characteristics of a discharge tube with a configuration typical of gas-discharge light sources and electric-discharge lasers (a so-called “long discharge tube”) filled with argon or helium at a pressure of 1 Torr have been investigated. A breakdown has been implemented using positive and negative voltage pulses with a linear leading edge having a slope dU/dt ~ 10–107 V/s. Visible light from an external source (halogen incandescent lamp) is found to affect the breakdown characteristics. The dependences of the dynamic breakdown voltage of the tube on dU/dt and on the incident light intensity are measured. The breakdown voltage is found to decrease under irradiation of the high-voltage anode of the tube in a wide range of dU/dt. A dependence of the effect magnitude on the light intensity and spectrum is obtained. Possible physical mechanisms of this phenomenon are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia

    A. I. Shishpanov, Yu. Z. Ionikh & A. V. Meshchanov

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  1. A. I. Shishpanov
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  2. Yu. Z. Ionikh
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  3. A. V. Meshchanov
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Correspondence to A. I. Shishpanov.

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Original Russian Text © A.I. Shishpanov, Yu.Z. Ionikh, A.V. Meshchanov, 2016, published in Optika i Spektroskopiya, 2016, Vol. 120, No. 6, pp. 929–935.

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Shishpanov, A.I., Ionikh, Y.Z. & Meshchanov, A.V. The effect of external visible light on the breakdown voltage of a long discharge tube. Opt. Spectrosc. 120, 871–875 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0030400X16060217

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0030400X16060217

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