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A structurally simple dielectric barrier discharge based mercury-free plasma UV-light source has been developed for efficient water disinfection. The source comprises of a dielectric barrier discharge arrangement between two co-axial quartz tubes with an optimized gas gap. The outer electrode is an aluminium baked foil tape arranged in a helical form with optimized pitch, while the inner electrode is a hollow aluminium metallic rod, hermetically sealed. Strong bands peaking at wavelengths 172 nm and 253 nm, along with a weak band peaking at wavelength 265 nm have been simultaneously observed due to plasma radiation from the admixture of xenon and iodine gases. The developed UV source has been used for bacterial deactivation studies using an experimental setup that is an equivalent of the conventional house-hold water purifier system. Deactivation studies for five types of bacteria, i.e., E. coli, Shigella boydii, Vibrio, Coliforms and Fecal coliform have been demonstrated with 4 log reductions in less than ten seconds.

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In the present paper, a pseudospark discharge based multiple gap plasma cathode electron gun is reported which has been operated separately in self and trigger breakdown modes using two different gases, namely, argon and hydrogen. The beam current and beam energy have been analyzed using a concentric ring diagnostic arrangement. Two distinct electron beams are clearly seen with hollow cathode and conductive phases. The hollow cathode phase has been observed for ∼50 ns where the obtained electron beam is having low beam current density and high energy. While in conductive phase it is high current density and low energy electron beam. It is inferred that in the hollow cathode phase the beam energy is more for the self breakdown case whereas the current density is more for the trigger breakdown case. The tailor made operation of the hollow cathode phase electron beam can play an important role in microwave generation. Up to 30% variation in the electron beam energy has been achieved keeping the same gas and by varying the breakdown mode operations. Also, up to 32% variation in the beam current density has been achieved for the trigger breakdown mode at optimized trigger position by varying the gas type.