Silent Discharges in Ozonisers and CO2 Lasers

Abstract

Dielectric barrier ac discharges (silent discharges) have been developed to optimise the performance of ozonisers and C02 lasers. The characteristics and properties of the discharge are discussed and examined in the light of experimental results. The frequency of the applied voltage and gap length are around 1 kHz and 1 mm for the ozoniser and around 100 kHz and several em for the C02 laser. We have found that ozone is produced with high efficiency by using high energy electrons in a narrow gap. On the other hand, for C02 lasers, a high excitation efficiency is achieved by specifying the laser medium gas at very high N2 concentrations in a long gap.