Excimer emission from pulsed microhollow cathode discharges in xenon

Direct current (dc) microhollow cathode discharge (MHCD) is an intense source for excimer radiation in vacuum ultraviolet at a wavelength of 172 nm in a high pressure xenon (Xe) gas. The concentration of precursors for the excimer formation, i.e., excited and ionized gas atoms, increases significantly by applying high voltage pulse onto the dc MHCD over the pulse duration range from 20 to 100 ns. The intensity of the excimer emission for the voltage pulse of 20 ns duration exceeds that of the emission intensity obtained from the same MHCD operated only in the dc mode, by one order of magnitude. In addition, the emission intensity increases by one order of magnitude over the pulse duration range from 20 to 100 ns. It can be assumed that the emission intensity of the MHCD source increases as long as the duration of the high voltage pulse is shorter than the electron relaxation time. For the high voltage pulse of 100 ns duration, the emission intensity has been found to be further enhanced by a factor of three when the gas pressure is increased from 200 to 800 mbar.