New Excitation Unit For The Rare Gas Continua In The Vacuum Ultraviolet PDF Download

Experimental details are presented of an excitation unit developed for use in producing the rare gas continua in helium, argon, krypton, and xenon. The unit is essentially a thyratron-controlled modulator which replaces the spark-gap external trigger in a conventional spectroscopic 'condensed discharge'. With this unit, it is possible to obtain the Hopfield helium continuum in the 580 to 1100A wave-length region with improved intensity and stability so that an improved bandwidth of slightly less than 0.25A is obtained with a 2.2 m normal-incidence vacuum monochromator and photoelectric scanning detection. This excitation unit is described, and its application to study of the rare gas continua and to absorption cross-section measurements in hydrogen is illustrated. (Author).