Observation of the hollow cathode effect from a dielectric cathode

The hollow cathode effect (HCE) is investigated in the dielectric hollow cathode structure in a Ne-Xe mixture at 4%. The influence of the dielectric is shown experimentally by the relationship between voltage and current peaks. The linearity of reduced current density confirms the existence of the HCE and shows that cathode fall has the same value at every pD condition. Varying the pD, the variation in the discharge mode can be measured with IR intensity emitted from the plasma and photographs of discharge in the visible part of the spectra. Voltages and current in the range of 3 kV at 10 μA were used. We suggest an electrode configuration reinforced in cathode sputtering for the display panel and light source using the dielectric hollow cathode discharge (DHCD), and introducing a mechanism of the DHCD mode.