Experimental investigation of the electrical and optical properties of a DBD photon source in a Ne/Xe mixture

Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) excited lamps have been widely used in UV and VUV ultraviolet light source applications. The work consists in making a study of the electrical and optical characteristics for the realization of a UV photon source. The lamp used is a flat DBD lamp filled with a 50/50% Ne/Xe mixture supplied by two types of excitation sources: a rectangular pulsed voltage and a sinusoidal voltage at a frequency of 20 kHz.The aim is to get a uniform light source with a better efficiency. For increasing applied voltages, the rise in pressure is accompanied by an elevation in luminance. This augmentation in pressure has a visible effect on the efficiency, thus related to the VUV production efficiency of the discharge.In this work, electrical (current and voltage measurements) and optical (luminance and luminous efficacy) studies were performed to characterize a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) flat lamp. Comparing the results obtained on the luminous efficiency and luminance of the lamp excited by the two types of signals (sinusoidal and pulsed), the results clearly show that the pulsed signal improves considerably the luminous uniformity of the lamp.