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Argon

The discovery of argon is attributed to the British scientists Sir William Ramsay and Lord Rayleigh in 1894, for which they received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1904.

A member of the Noble Gas family, argon is the third most abundant gaseous element in the Earth's atmosphere (1%), after nitrogen and oxygen. Its name stems from the Greek "argos" meaning "inactive" due to its very low reactive nature. Indeed, it was believed for many years that this colourless and odourless gas could not combine with any other element. However, semiconductor chip designers rely on the combination between argon and fluorine in an excimer laser to define the smallest feature sizes on the latest generation of microprocessor chips. The National Research Council Canada (NRC) was a pioneer in the development of the excimer laser.

The semiconductor industry takes advantage of an artificial argon atmosphere for growing silicon and germanium crystals. Furthermore, the light industry uses this "inert" element to fill light bulbs as argon prevents oxygen from corroding the filament, which in turn, extends the working life of the bulb.

Since argon emits light when a high current density is passed through it, it is used in the manufacture of lasers. A krypton/argon laser is used by the NRC in confocal microscopy to excite fluorescent molecules. Numerous fluorescent dyes and probes have been produced that allow researchers to monitor cell function. For example, specific fluorescent-tagged probes that detect calcium concentration can be targeted to the mitochondria of cells. With mixed krypton/argon lasers, three wavelengths of light (488, 568, and 647 nm) can be obtained instead of only two with argon alone.