Neon is an unreactive gas, which makes it useful in scientific research and manufacturing when an inert environment is required. It is used in vacuum and plasma tubes, lasers, etc., and is a key component in the photolithography step of silicon semiconductor manufacture. Neon lasers can create high-resolution images with a wavelength of less than one nanometer, enabling microchip manufacturers to print fine patterns on extremely thin wafers.
Neon is created in the interiors of large stars, where its nuclei fuse with helium and oxygen atoms. It is also found in very small quantities in Earth’s atmosphere and sea water, as well as at the volcanic fumaroles near Vesuvius and in hot springs around Naples, Italy.
It was discovered in 1898 by chemists Sir William Ramsay of Scotland and Morris Travers of England. They had been evaporating liquid argon to isolate krypton and were surprised that their spectrometer showed the gas glowing with what is now neon’s trademark red color. Neon fits in the noble gases column of the Periodic Table, along with helium, argon, krypton and xenon.
The light a neon lamp produces is produced when an alternating current passes through a tube filled with the gas. When the electricity is applied, the atoms in the neon lose their negative electrons and become positively charged ions that are drawn towards a negative electrode at one end of the tube. The other free electrons shed their positive charge and fly away from the tube, creating a luminous glow.
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