Want to ionize D2 or H2 gas with UV light!

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Sven Andersson
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Want to ionize D2 or H2 gas with UV light!

Post by Sven Andersson »

Does anybody know where to buy such a UV-lamp. It must, I presume, give a hideously intense UV-light. UV-LEDs are not intense enough I think.

In school, a teacher once showed us a UV-lamp that looked something like a projector for slides. We were warned not to look into it because it would cause eye damage. What was it he showed us?
John Futter
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Re: Want to ionize D2 or H2 gas with UV light!

Post by John Futter »

Sven
I do not think this is possible UV 3.8 - 3.1eV first ionisation level for Hydrogen = 13.6 eV Helium 24.5eV
As soon as a UV source goes through glass the short wavelength UV is blocked even quartz will block below 250nm wavelength hence it is usual to use high vaccum for very short UV wavelengths.
The above is probably why Deuterium discharge lamps are used to generate short UV wavelengths
IE electrically excited hydrogen isotope falling back to ground state releases several wavelength photons in the UV region.
However UV may separate H2 to 2H as it does to oxygen allowing O3 to be generated
Frank Sanns
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Re: Want to ionize D2 or H2 gas with UV light!

Post by Frank Sanns »

It is not the intensity that can or cannot ionize a gas but rather its wavelength. Sunlamps will give UV-A and UV-B which are the longer wavelengths of UV. Those can be purchased all over the internet.

There is also a short wave UV-C which is getting close to the cusp of soft x-rays. As John said, these rays do not easily pass through normal optical media however the are in prolific use as germicidal lamps. They can be purchased inexpensively online for air and water purifiers and for surface disinfection. They are terribly dangerous though to all organisms. The lamps must be shielded and you must not get skin or eyes close or you will do permanent damage including skin cancer.
Achiever's madness; when enough is still not enough. ---FS
We have to stop looking at the world through our physical eyes. The universe is NOT what we see. It is the quantum world that is real. The rest is just an electron illusion. ---FS
Sven Andersson
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Re: Want to ionize D2 or H2 gas with UV light!

Post by Sven Andersson »

Frank Sanns wrote:It is not the intensity that can or cannot ionize a gas but rather its wavelength.
True, Einstein got the Nobel prize for that! The photoelectric effect!

But, I thought like this; if I use a combination of electron bombardment (from a regular hot cathode ray setup) and intense UV-C, perhaps the UV-light would help to ionize atomic deuterium (D with one electron still attached)? Or D2+ perhaps? And be a booster of ionization so to speak...

Comments? Is this a reasonable approach? I want to create a large population of deuterons inside a container with a relatively high pressure, maybe 10 Pa (maybe as high as 100 Pa) or higher.

I thought of putting in into the reaction vessel, my collection of 8 or 9 Am-241 alpha emitters from smoke detectors, that I slaughtered.

UV-lasers can ionize deuterium because the photons come so tightly packed that they sequentially lift the electrons up to the ionization level. UV-lasers are expensive though. How much does the cheapest ones cost?

Or could a hideously intense green laser do the job?

Or a 405 nm violet laser? Let the laser light shine between two almost (parallell) mirrors, creating a large 'surface' of intense laser light...

Sven
JohnCuthbert
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Re: Want to ionize D2 or H2 gas with UV light!

Post by JohnCuthbert »

Realistically, you are not going to get radiation that will ionise hydrogen from one place to another. Air will absorb it strongly and so would any window.

You would be looking at this sort of thing
http://www.spring8.or.jp/pdf/en/res_fro/09/172-173.pdf

A heated filament acting as an electron source would be a lot easier.
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