Abstract

Direct water cooling of the discharge tube of surfatron-sustained plasmas is implemented. Discharge tubes of 2 mm i.d. × 0.1 mm wall thickness are able to sustain He plasmas at incident power levels up to 500 W for prolonged periods without severe degradation. The emission spectra and noise amplitude spectra of water-cooled plasmas are compared to those for the air-cooled, thick-walled discharge tubes commonly employed. Incident power and tube diameter optimizations are discussed.

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