Date of Award

Fall 2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Program/Concentration

Electrical Engineering

Committee Director

Mounir Laroussi

Committee Member

Sacharia Albin

Committee Member

Amin N. Dharamsi

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.E55 A44 2006

Abstract

Excimer lamps are intense non-coherent radiation sources, which emit UV or VUV radiation in a narrow wavelength range. The operation of these excimer lamps depends on the decomposition of excimers that are created in various non-equilibrium discharge plasmas. Excimer lamps mainly use rare gases or rare gas halides as the excimers formed by them emit radiation either in the UV or VUV region. This was confirmed in this work by observing the spectrum of the discharge in neon, krypton and chlorine gas mixture formed in a cylindrical dielectric barrier discharge (C-DBD). CDBD's, which are non-equilibrium discharges, are used to generate excimer radiation as they can provide high-energy electrons and operate at high pressures that are required for the formation of excimers. The discharge in Ne/Kr/Cl2 gas mixture is shown to be an efficient UV source in the wavelength range of 200 to 280 nm with strong emission bands centered around 200 nm (Cl2), 222 nm (KrCI ) and 258 nm (Cl2).

The dependence of the intensity of UV radiation on different operating parameters, pressure in the discharge, voltage and frequency of the input signal and discharge tube diameter, is studied using a spectrometer and a UV calibrated photometer. It is shown that the maximum UV radiation intensity is achieved at a pressure of 250 torr and frequency of 18 kHz. The UV radiation intensity is found to be an increasing function of the other two operating parameters: input voltage and discharge tube diameter. The effect of pressure, discharge tube diameter, input voltage and frequency on the electrical power consumed by the lamp is also studied. It is shown that the pressure in the discharge doesn't affect the power consumed by the lamp. But an increase in either discharge tube diameter or input voltage or frequency showed an increase in power consumption. Conversion efficiency of the lamp varied depending on pressure in the discharge and power consumed by the lamp. Efficiencies as high as 1.5% can be achieved under optimal conditions. This low cost excimer lamp can be used in applications like surface modification and water treatment.

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DOI

10.25777/k2rp-j933

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