Microwave discharges of plasma lighting system

Summary form only given, as follows. Summary form only given. A plasma lighting system, PLS, is an electrode-less light source to provide visible light of continuous spectrum with high power efficiency. The light source comprises a bulb containing a plasma forming medium. When the bulb is placed in a microwave energy field, the field ionizes buffer gas within the bulb. A low pressure plasma discharge forms within the bulb, heating the bulb wall, vaporizing materials such as sulfur within the bulb to generate light. The goal of our experiment is to achieve a higher light-conversion efficiency. For this work we studied experimentally the microwave discharge characteristics of initial buffer gas, plasma geometry, bulb rotation effect, and emission spectrum features in the PLS.