Design and Analysis of a High Brightness Axial Flash lamp

A high color temperature, pulsed axial flashlamp which is very simple to build is described. The radiation is produced in argon or helium gas which is contained in an alumina tube at atmospheric pressure and allowed to flow out into the atmosphere through a hollow anode. At current densities of 40 kA/cm^2 (in a 1.5 cm^2 bore) the helium plasma radiates like a 30,000 K blackbody and can produce about one W/ angstrom of uv radiation in a f/8 solid angle. The voltage vs current relation of the arc discharge is of the form υ=K_0|i|^12 which allows one to design an R, L, C series discharge circuit which can produce a critically damped current pulse of arbitrary length.