Investigation of Characteristics of the U-Shaped Plasma Channel of the Pulsed Xenon Lamps

The paper presents main results of investigating electrical parameters and characteristics of the pulsed xenon lamp ultraviolet radiation with a U-shaped plasma channel and caprod current leads. The gas-discharge lamp design feature suggests presence of the ballast transelectrode volumes contributing to the xenon escape from the discharge and the radiation acting from one part of the U-shaped plasma channel on the other. Literature sources devoted to the specified phenomena were analyzed. Factors influencing the xenon plasma thermophysical state were established. Due to the lack of techniques for registering the pulsed radiation in a narrow spectral range of 200--300 nm, measurement techniques and investigation hardware were considered in detail. The time interval for establishing the gas-dynamic equilibrium in a pulsed xenon lamp in the process of its entry into the nominal operating mode was determined by calculation and experiment. Studies of the Vt transelectrode volume effect on characteristics of the pulsed xenon plasma were carried out in the range of 0.16 < Vt /Vi < 0.3. It was established that the possible factors leading to a decrease in the current density and intensity of the UV radiation included the modes of electrical supply and evaporation of the quartz shell limiting the discharge. It was shown that self-radiation return in plasma contributed to an increase in the current density of the pulsed xenon lamp