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The characteristics of xenon-neon discharge fluorescent lamps with inner electrodes are described in this paper. All lamps were operated by pulsed discharge. When the partial pressure of neon is high, the ignition voltage and operation voltage are low because of the Penning effect. Thus, a higher mixing ratio of neon is desirable for lower ignition and operation voltages. However, the luminance of phosphor increases as the mixing ratio of xenon increases. As the pressure of xenon increases, the second peak of phosphor emission in afterglow increases. These increases seem to be caused by the VUV light of xenon excimers. Therefore, though there is the problem of ion bombardment of the cathode under a high operation voltage, the pulsed discharge of the xenon-neon mixture at a high xenon mixing ratio is desirable in mercuryless fluorescent lamps because a strong radiation of xenon excimer is obtained.

The characteristics of electrodeless xenon discharge fluorescent lamps using dielectric barrier discharge are described in this paper. All lamps were operated with pulsed discharge. The luminance of phosphor increases as the pressure of xenon increases. As the pressure of xenon increases, the second peak of phosphor emission increases. These increases seem to be caused by the VUV light of xenon excimers. Therefore, in order to obtain high luminance, xenon should be filled at high pressure. In the case of the lamp operated by inner electrodes, if only xenon is contained in the lamp, the cathode is bombarded and is damaged by the large mass of a xenon ion. On the other hand, the external electrode type is never damaged by the ions or electrons. Moreover, the efficacy of the external electrode type is as great as the inner electrode type, and it can be improved by increasing the distance between electrodes.

It is qualitatively verified by the energy conservation equation that high electron temperature is attained by the pulsed discharge with rapid current rise. In the glow discharge of the tube filled with mercury vapor and neon gas, Iuminous color of the positive column varies from the color close to red emitted by neon to blue of mercury by the square-wave pulsed discharge. Brightness of blue light is hundreds nits but that of red light is 100 nts at most. In the arc discharge, red light with strong brightness is easily obtained by squarewave pulses. On the other hand, blue light may be obtained at high frequency but the discharge becomes unstable at that frequency. Therefore, the current waveform alteration method is effective for luminous color control of the arc discharge.

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