This lamp emits high-energy ultraviolet (UV) light at the shortest wave lengths ever recorded for such a device, from 140 to 220 nanometers. This is within the range of ‘vacuum UV light,’ so named because although light of that energy can propagate in a vacuum, it gets quickly absorbed by oxygen in the air.
This property makes vacuum UV light very useful for industrial applications such as sterilizing medical devices and cleaning semiconductor substrates. This is because when the light strikes oxygen-containing molecules on a surface, it generates highly reactive oxygen radicals, which can wipe out any microbes contaminating that surface.
The new vacuum UV lamp has important advantages over the commercial ones used today, which are bulky and expensive. They also use a lot of power, run hot, have short lifetimes, and contain toxic gases that can harm both the environment and people. The new lamp, however, does not have these problems because it was fabricated with a solid-state phosphor made from a thin film of KMgF3, which is easy to make and does not use toxic gases or expensive rare earth elements.
In the April 22 issue of AIP Publishing’s journal APL Materials, the scientists describe how this solid-state phosphor promises to make future low-power vacuum UV lamps that will be smaller, longer lasting, and more flexible in design than the ones used today. Those traits, combined with being relatively heat-free, are typical advantages of solid-state lighting in general.
“Our lamp is a promising light source in terms of lifetime, size, heat conduction, and stability,” said lead researcher Shingo Ono of Japan’s Nagoya Institute of Technology in a statement. “[It] has the potential to be an excellent alternative light source to low-pressure mercury lamps, excimer lamps, and deuterium lamps.”
No comments