title: Effects of argon atoms on the self-absorption and the intensity of hg 2537-a radiation in hg + ar discharges.
abstract: A study was made of the feasibility of increasing the efficiency of fluorescent lamps at high powers by increasing the Hg 2537-A resonance radiation through a reduction of self-absorption. Specifically, we attempted to reduce the Hg 2537-A self-absorption by introducing a higher pressure of a foreign gas (argon) to alter the Hg 2537-A absorption line shape and width by collision broadening. The intensity of the Hg 2537-A line in Hg + Ar discharges was measured as an independent function of mercury pressure (0.7 mTorr to 27 mTorr), argon pressure (5 Torr to 400 Torr), and dc input power (5.5 W to 97 W). A detailed theoretical analysis indicates that there are four ways that additional argon reduces the Hg 2537-A self-absorption: (1) The Hg 2537-A line gets broader simply because the additional argon atoms increase the Hg-Ar collision frequency; (2) adding argon causes the gas temperature to rise and this drives the Hg-Ar collision frequency still higher; (3) the rise in gas temperature also causes an increase in the Hg 2537-A doppler width; (4) the additional argon changes the Hg 2537-A line shape from doppler dominated to a collision dominated profile. The experiments demonstrate, however, that no gain is achieved in the Hg 2537-A intensity with the addition of extra argon in spite of the beneficial effect on the self-absorption escape rate. This advantage is apparently offset by the argon's reduction of the electron energy which leads to fewer mercury atoms excited to the Hg 6(3)P(1) state.
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Hammond
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Gallo