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 the 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.
