SPECTROSCOPIC ANALYSIS OF COMPACT FLUORESCENT LAMPS: AN EXPERIMENT FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

Compact fluorescent lamps are a combination of rare-gas/mercury discharge plasma and different phosphors doped with trivalent lanthanide ions that convert the ultraviolet emission of the discharge into visible light. In this communication, we present an optical emission spectroscopy (OES) analysis of several compact fluorescence lamps. The emitted lines (from mercury and argon) and bands (from the trivalent rare earth ions in the phosphor) are identified. A typical cool white compact fluorescent lamp utilizes two rare doped phosphors, Tb3+, Ce3+:LaPO4 for green-blue emission and Eu3+:Y2O3 for red. An ICCD camera is used for spectra recording. This experiment tries to explain, to undergraduates students in chemical physics, basic notions about the experimental spectroscopy.