Xenon Lamp

Definition

Lamps that produce light as a result of an electrical discharge, generated between two electrodes, in a high-pressure pure xenon gas, which is contained in a transparent bulb.

Note: So-called xenon gas discharge lamps for automobile lighting in fact are metal halide gas discharge lamps in which xenon gas does not contribute to the radiation but is added solely to facilitate ignition of the lamp. These lamps do not belong to the category of pure xenon lamps and are therefore not described here.

Xenon lamps are usually not used for general lighting purposes, and therefore, only the fundamentals of their working principle and of their properties are described in this encyclopedia.

Short-Arc Xenon Lamps

The light-emitting surface of short-arc xenon lamps is a near point source of very high luminance with excellent and constant color properties. They are developed as an energy efficient and safe substitute for the awkward carbon arc lamps used until the 1960s in cinema...