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Fun with plasma Thought I'd share this experiment using a decorative 'neon' lamp. There is a bit of a popular theme on YouTube videos producing floating toroidal plasma in evacuated flasks backfilled with xenon. This is my budget attempt with an off-the-shelf lamp. Rather than a floating toroid, I have just made a bit of a plasma puddle. It's obvious the main gas in this lamp is mostly argon and the UV content is fluorescing the coating on the leaves, although there is also some neon. The plasma is created electrodeless by the RF coil the lamp is sitting in. For all the RF field is quite strong and at a voltage high enough to ionise the gas in the lamp, it's all done by the amazing properties of resonance as the circuit supply voltage is only 25V. Keywords: Miscellaneous

Fun with plasma

Thought I'd share this experiment using a decorative 'neon' lamp. There is a bit of a popular theme on YouTube videos producing floating toroidal plasma in evacuated flasks backfilled with xenon. This is my budget attempt with an off-the-shelf lamp. Rather than a floating toroid, I have just made a bit of a plasma puddle. It's obvious the main gas in this lamp is mostly argon and the UV content is fluorescing the coating on the leaves, although there is also some neon. The plasma is created electrodeless by the RF coil the lamp is sitting in. For all the RF field is quite strong and at a voltage high enough to ionise the gas in the lamp, it's all done by the amazing properties of resonance as the circuit supply voltage is only 25V.

g_e.JPG Duterium.jpg torroid.JPG dia_breakdown.jpg cfl_x.jpg
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Filename:torroid.JPG
Album name:Tuopeek / Misc
Keywords:Miscellaneous
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Date added:19 Aug 2024
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Comment 1 to 8 of 8
Page: 1

Sammi   [Mon 19 Aug 2024 at 17:33]
That's beautiful.! Love
wide-lite 1000   [Tue 20 Aug 2024 at 23:40]
Cool !!
BT25   [Wed 21 Aug 2024 at 00:07]
Nice shot! Cool
Max   [Wed 21 Aug 2024 at 16:45]
Really nice! Your resonant circuit must have quite a low ohmic impedance to be able to ignite and maintain a magnetic excitation of the discharge.
Tuopeek   [Sat 24 Aug 2024 at 08:31]
Indeed Max, much harder to do this with a plasma globe where the gas strike voltage is many times higher. This lamp, designed for 230v mains, is much more accommodating with it's, I guess, Penning mixture.
Max   [Sat 24 Aug 2024 at 11:01]
If your lamp is filled with argon, then there may be traces of xenon to lower the ignition voltage via Penning ionization, but I doubt it. I think the low starting voltage of those Ar-filled deco lamps relies entirely on their low fill pressure.
Tuopeek   [Mon 26 Aug 2024 at 14:58]
That's a good point Max, the gas fill may well be the same as many plasma globes but the pressure in those are much higher to achieve the fine filament discharge paths.
Max   [Wed 28 Aug 2024 at 15:35]
It is certain that the pressure in plasma globes is higher than in usual glow discharge lamps.

Comment 1 to 8 of 8
Page: 1