VUV and UV radiation in pulsed self-sustained discharges

The work is devoted to the study of VUV and UV radiation in plasma jets and diffuse discharges formed by short voltage pulses in mixtures of rare gases with various additives. Intense radiation on VUV lines of atomic nitrogen in plasma jets and diffuse discharges was detected. The conditions providing the maximum intensity of this radiation were determined. During the discharge in a gas jet, the radiation power at 149.3 and 174.3 nm was measured to be as high as 6.8 mW/cm2. The assumption about the cascade transfer of energy to the upper level of the transition of the Lyman band of molecular H2 was confirmed, which leads to an increase in the pulse duration of a H2 laser. In ternary mixtures of rare gases with F2(NF3)-Cl2(HCl), intense radiation of Cl2 molecules with a maximum at 258 nm and ClF molecules with a maximum at 284 nm was obtained. The influence of type (Ar, Ne, He) and pressure of rare gas on intensities of these bands was determined. In mixtures with helium, a band of F2 molecules at 157 nm appears in the emission spectrum, and in mixtures with Ar, a band of ArF molecules with a maximum at 193 nm was observed. In mixtures of F2(NF3) or Cl2(HCl) with iodine, emission of IF and ICl interhalogen molecules in the blue region of the spectrum was obtained. The conditions for achieving the maximum emission intensity on the VUV lines of atomic iodine in mixtures with helium, neon, and argon were determined. The possibility of changing the intensities of the VUV lines I* in the range of 160–187 nm and the UV line at 206.2 nm over a wide range was shown.