A low pressure electrical discharge for excitation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs, without fragmentation is described. The discharge characteristics as well as the plasma background spectra are given. The application of the discharge for the excitation of molecular spectra of PAHs is described. Difficulties with correction of the analyte emission spectrum for the background emission spectrum of the gas (He) are mentioned. Analytical use of the discharge for detection of PAH3 introduced by gas chromatography is described and is shown to be of marginal analytical use because of the rather poor detection limits of about 1 μg.