Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2009
The concept and experimental results of a microwave-excited elliptical excimer lamp are presented in this paper. The plasma excimer photons are excited at one focus, and the absorber is placed at the second focus. Two elliptical microwave cavities with different eccentricities were tested to study the excitation and characteristics of such an elliptical excimer lamp. The results show that it can be a high-efficiency, narrow-band incoherent vacuum–ultraviolet (VUV)-to-near-infrared photon source. The potential applications of such an excimer lamp, especially with tunable vibronic solid-state and diamond thin film growth, are discussed.