Noble Gas - Discharge Color

Discharge Color

Colors and spectra (bottom row) of electric discharge in noble gases; only the second row represents pure gases.
Helium Neon Argon
 Krypton Xenon

The color of gas discharge emission depends on several factors, including the following:

  • discharge parameters (local value of current density and electric field, temperature, etc. – note the color variation along the discharge in the top row);
  • gas purity (even small fraction of certain gases can affect color);
  • material of the discharge tube envelope – note suppression of the UV and blue components in the bottom-row tubes made of thick household glass.

Read more about this topic:  Noble Gas

Famous quotes containing the words discharge and/or color:

    ““Weren’t you relieved to find he wasn’t dead?”
    “No! and yet I don’t know it’s hard to say.
    I went about to kill him fair enough.”
    “You took an awkward way. Did he discharge you?”
    “Discharge me? No! He knew I did just right.””
    —Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    “Gradually I regained my usual composure. I reread Pale Fire more carefully. I liked it better when expecting less. And what was that? What was that dim distant music, those vestiges of color in the air? Here and there I discovered in it and especially, especially in the invaluable variants, echoes and spangles of my mind, a long ripplewake of my glory.”
    —Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)