  Experiments to study the light emission from plasma produced by particle
beams are presented. Fundamental aspects in comparison with discharge plasma
formation are discussed. It is shown that the formation of excimer molecules is
an important process. This paper summarizes various studies of particle beam
induced light emission and presents first results of a direct comparison of
light emission induced by electron- and ion beam excitation. Both high energy
heavy ion beam and low energy electron beam experiments are described and an
overview over applications in the form of light sources, lasers, and ionization
devices is given.
