Radiative transfer in high-current Ar-Hg discharges

Mixtures of noble gases and mercury are widely used in lighting applications, e.g. fluorescent lamps. To optimise the performance of these light sources, numerical modelling has been carried out with the help of PLASIMO, a computer program which is being developed at the Eindhoven University of Technology. The most important process in efficient light sources is also the one which is least understood: the production and transport of resonant radiation. Attempts were made to provide an accurate description of radiative transfer in the plasmas under consideration. Various solutions to the Holstein equation will be presented and discussed. In order to incorporate these solutions into thefluid model PLASIMO, a novel Collisional Radiative Model has been developed. It is discussed in a second contribution to this conference ('Towards a general Collisional Radiative Model, Van Dijk et al.)