Negative glow discharges for lighting

Summary form only given. Results of experimental and theoretical studies of negative glow (NG) discharge devices with original electrode configurations are reported. For the conventional low pressure discharge, the radiation intensity of the negative glow is several times greater than that of the positive column because most of the of the energy supplied to the NG is converted to excitation and ionization of gas particles. However, applications of NG plasmas have been impaired by the practical difficulty of obtaining extended NG. For laser-pumping, extended negative glow plasmas has been achieved with electrode constructions called hollow cathodes (HC). They can be described as discharge devices in which the cathode (or number of cathode elements) surrounds a volume of space, forming a cavity. The anode is placed so that the minimal distance between the cathode and the anode, d conforms to the condition of hindered discharge (pd