Ultraviolet Lamp for the Generation of Intense, Constant-Shape Pulses in the Subnanosecond Region

Abstract

A commonly available mercury contact relay is modified to make a uv lamp which yields a spark with approximately 100 times the intensity of the original relay and with constant characteristic risetime of 0.4 nsec, decay time of 0.55 nsec, and half-width of 0.5 nsec. The lamp can be used not only for fluorescence decay-time studies, but also for electrical applications in the subnanosecond region. It has been operated in the range 3 to 50 000 pulses per second.