Development of a stable short-pulse-width flash lamp.

1991 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 02640226
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: 核・宇宙線・素粒子
• Research Institution: Kyoto UniVersity
• Principal Investigator: SASAO Noboru Kyoto Univ. Physics Lecturer, 理学部, 講師 (10115850)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KURASHIGE Hisaya Kyoto Univ. Physics Research Assistant, 理学部, 助手 (20205181)
• Project Period (FY): 1990 – 1991
• Keywords: Short-pulse-width Flash Lamp / Xe Flash Lamp / Photomultiplier Gain Monitor

Research Abstract

The purpose of this research work is to develop a stable shortpulse flash lamp which can be used to monitor photomultiplier gain variations. We have studied(1)properties of lamp gas, (2)gas pressure, (3)spark high-voltage, (4)spark circuit, (5)electrode structure, etc. In particular, we tested Ar, Xe, H2, N2 gases : Of these, Xe was found to be efficient in producing light although the pulse width of light output was wide. On the other hand, N2 was found to give the narrowest pulse among the studied gases. It was also found that the light yield was larger as the gas pressure and/or the spark voltage was higher. The light pulse width, however, had little dependence on these two parameters. As for the spark circuit, it was important to tune in such a way that it fulfilled the critical damping condition. The anode-cathode gap length was varied ; we chose 0.5, 1.5 and 3.0 mm gap. The minimum spark voltage necessary to fire lamps was found to increase as the gap widened and the light pulse became longer as the gap widened. The light yield efficiency, on the other hand, was little smaller for 0.5mm gap compared with the other two configurations. As a final test, we checked the stability of light output for a lamp of 2 atm. N2 gas with 1.5mm anothercathode gap : the relative stability was found to be 4%(rms).