ok, so i just (19 Feb 2007) did some simple experiments with the small (100W) mercury vapor lamp that i have + a hard-drive magnet + a solenoid.
- magnet splits the plasma into two paths, depending on the direction of the AC plasma current. The split is strongest when at the transition between north and south poles on the HD rare-earth magnet, as here the field lines are going in short loops with the vertical part approximately intersecting the plasma, and hence exerting the lorentz force towards or away from the magnet.
- it is possible to extinguish the bulb by moving the plasma too close! I think that this forces the electrons to collide with the quartz tube, cooling them too much.
- I also built a solenoid out of a small spool of 14 gauge magnet wire attached to my buzz box arc welder. The current was set at ~50 amps, (not sure how accurate that setting was) - enough to get the small coil pretty hot rather quickly. When placed inside the AC-energized coil, the plasma arc was forced to spiral around the walls of the quartz tube.
- This is most likely because the mean velocity of the electrons is pretty low, hence the lamour radius is high in the relatively-weak magnetic field. I notice that at the beginning of igniting the mercury-vapor lamp, far more ozone is produced (as gauged by smell) than is produced when it is hot and the plasma current is high. This accompanies a shift from a very blue emission spectra to a whiter emission, I think this is because the pressure becomes higher inside the tube, hence the mean free path of the electrons is lower, hence they have less energy to excite the hard-UV bands of mercury ions once the lamp is hot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck's_constant --> E=hv, where v is the frequency --> 250nm approximately equals 5 eV. lamour radius: mv/qB. 5ev ~= 1.33e6 m/s. @ B= 0.1T, lamour radius = 7.5e-5m = 0.07mm (what?) ok, more reasonable: B = 0.005T, r = 1mm - still smaller than observed! Need to check this magnetic field. B=mu n I. I = 50A, n = 3 * 2/0.064) = 93 turns, mu (air) = 4*pi*10^-7 --> B ~= 0.005T. (as a first approximation). If the electron velocity is lower, then the radius will be smaller; it is the opposite for the magnetic field strength.
- of course, we are disregarding thermal interactions, as well as drift - will have to look at the textbook for this.
- Feb 23 2007 - I made a larger-diameter solenoid out of the 14 gauge copper wire & turned the buzz-box welder current up to 100A (or so it says, don't know how much in practice) - enough to get the coil very hot very quickly. I put this current loop around the broken 400W metal-halide lamp - the one originally from the blacklight cannon. As it is still being driven from the same low-wattage power supply, it remains cool, the bulb voltage is low (21V) and much UV (and ozone) is produced - generally indicating that the pressure in the bulb is low and the electron velocity/mean free path is higher.
- well, actually: when the blub pressure is low, much energy below 240nm is produced. Apparently this is what is required for ozone production:
- HBO lamps do not generate ozone, because owing to the self-absorption in the cooler outer arc regions, all radiation below 240nm is trapped within the discharge. However during run-up before pressure increases, some ozone is produced.
- When I turned the solenoid on around the ignited bulb, the concentration of plasma in the center noticably increased, and the luminous intensity increased also. I'm not sure if this was due to AC pumping of plasma current; I doubt it, as most of the magnetic flux should have went around the plasma.
- The bulb voltage went to 23 - 24V; I do not know the current, I will have to measure it (perhaps with an oscilloscope?)
- The plasma became less uniform, too, perhaps because the solenoid was not aligned to the E-field with any accuracy.
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