Xenon flash lamps are pulsed light sources that emit light with an instantaneously high peak output. The emitted light is a continuous spectrum spanning from the UV to the infrared region and is used for a wide range of applications including chemical analysis and imaging. Xenon flash lamps emit a flash of light in its ionized state. A very high voltage of current is passed through the glass tube that houses xenon gas, this results in the ionization of the gas and a bright, intense burst of light is emitted.
Xenon lamps are suitable for many white light industrial applications. Due to its high-energy pulsed light, it is especially used for analyzing optically dense materials. Xenon flash tubes work by discharging the energy stored in a capacitor through a special flash tube filled with xenon gas to produce a very short burst of high intensity white light. Xenon flash has fantastic light power, up to several hundred thousand lux, but a very short pulse duration, typically 50 – 100μsec.
Even though xenon lamps produce broadband, almost continuous emission having a color temperature approximating sunlight in the visible wavelengths (often referred to as white light), they do exhibit a complex line spectrum in the 750 to 1000 nanometer region of the near-infrared spectrum (see Figure 1). The materials used in xenon lamps are not hazardous. These materials include quartz jacket, xenon gas, ceramic materials, tungsten, and molybdenum. Quartz is present in its crystalline form in a xenon lamp.
