Investigating the Effect of Cathode Electrode Doping on the Properties of Argon Flash Lamps

The authors report on the impact of electrode doping on the optical and electrical properties of argon flash lamps. in this work, the lamps are made using borosilicate glass tubes with an outer diameter of 6 mm and a discharge distance of 35 mm. in the construction of the lamps, five types of tungsten electrodes doped with thorium at two different percentages, cerium, lanthanum as well as pure tungsten are used. properties such as threshold voltage, light intensity, tube temperature, and flash time profile at various argon pressures are measured. the results indicated that, first, the threshold voltage is a linear function of gas pressure inside the tube. second, the lamp with 1.7%-2.2% thorium doped tungsten cathode showed a lower threshold voltage, higher light intensity, and lower temperature rise at continuous wave operation. these characteristics of electrodes doped with thorium make them an appropriate option for use in the fabrication of argon flash lamps.