Lucent plasma crucible
AssigneeCeravision Limited
InventorAndrew Simon Neate
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A lucent plasma crucible having a closed body for enclosing a fill material filled in a void formed within the closed body and enclosed by the closed body, the fill material being excitable by microwave energy to generate a light-emitting plasma. The crucible is dimensioned to have low order TE or TM microwave mode properties. The orders of the modes are 0, 1 or 2. Crucibles may be regular or irregular in shape. For circular cylindrical crucibles having diameter (d) in cm, length (l) in cm, and operating frequency (f) in MHZ, (d/l)2 is between 0 and 100, and (d×f)2 is between 0 and 2×109. Also 0<(d/l)2<20 and 0<(d×f)2<1.5×109 may be used.
Claims16
A lucent plasma crucible comprising:
- a closed translucent or transparent body forming a void for containing a light emitting plasma;
- and
- a fill material being filled in the void, the fill material being excitable by microwave energy to form the light emitting plasma,
- wherein the body is substantially right circular cylindrical and is dimensioned to have:
- low order transverse electric (TE) microwave mode properties, or
- low order transverse magnetic (TM) microwave mode properties.
A light source to be powered by microwave energy, the source comprising:
- a solid plasma crucible of material being lucent to exit of light, the plasma crucible having a sealed void in the plasma crucible and wherein the plasma crucible is substantially right circular cylindrical;
- a Faraday cage surrounding the plasma crucible, the cage containing microwaves while being at least partially light transmitting to permit exit of light from the plasma crucible;
- a fill contained by the void, the fill being of material excitable by microwave energy to form a light emitting plasma;
- and
- an antenna arranged within the plasma crucible for transmitting plasma-inducing microwave energy to the fill, the antenna having a connection extending outside the plasma crucible for coupling to a source of microwave energy,
- wherein the lucent plasma crucible has:
- low order transverse electric microwave mode, or
- low order transverse magnetic microwave mode properties.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.