Patent ID: 7447249

Claim:
A lighting system for generating light by exciting a medium such as gas or vapor, comprising: a microwave resonator having an internal space for generating a standing microwave; a microwave supply means for supplying the microwave into the internal space of the microwave resonator; and a gas cell enclosing the medium and disposed in the internal space of the microwave resonator, wherein the microwave generated by the microwave resonator is a standing wave of a linearly-polarized wave; wherein the gas cell is disposed in a position corresponding to a maximum electric field strength of the standing wave in the internal space of the microwave resonator or in the vicinity thereof, and in a direction parallel to the direction of the linearly-polarized wave, and the light is generated by exciting the medium in the gas cell using the standing microwave of the linearly-polarized wave generated in the internal space of the microwave resonator and wherein the generated light is output to the outside of the microwave resonator through a light lead-out hole provided in the microwave resonator.