Spatial distribution of the light emitted by an excimer lamp used for ultraviolet-B photo-therapy: Experiment and modeling.

The availability of excimer lamps, which emit ultraviolet (UV) noncoherent but narrow-bandwidth radiation, allowed a drastic reduction of the costs of the UV photo-therapy that has so far been accomplished by using excimer lasers. The main goal of this work is the measurement of the spatial distribution of the radiation intensity emitted by a commercial excimer lamp, to check the uniformity of the dose delivered to the target when changing either the distance from the lamp or the surface to be irradiated. The results show that a good uniformity of the delivered dose is achieved within a limited area and that when changing by only 1 cm the distance between the lamp and the target, the dose delivered to the target noticeably changes its value. The experimental data are in good agreement with the analytical results achieved by approximating the lamp by a uniform two-dimensional source. © 2004 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]