Our Broadband Light Sources

LS-BB1 Broadband LED Light Source

High Power White Light Source LS-HP1-DW

Broadband light sources provide light over a wide range of wavelengths. A smooth, closed spectrum is advantageous for most applications. An important group of broadband light sources are thermal light sources. Examples are halogen lamps, globars and plasma light sources such as deuterium, mercury arc and xenon lamps.

Thermal light sources

Thermal light sources are based on the fact that matter emits a certain spectrum of electromagnetic radiation depending on its temperature. For an idealized black radiator that absorbs all incoming electromagnetic radiation, the spectrum is described by Planck’s law of radiation and depends only on the temperature of the radiator. The spectra of halogen light sources, globars, and even those of many plasma light sources are very similar to the spectrum of an idealized black emitter. As the temperature rises, the luminance of the source increases, and the spectrum shifts towards the short-wave UV range (see figure on the right). The filament of a halogen lamp reaches temperatures of around 3000 Kelvin. Plasma light sources, on the other hand, enable much higher temperatures by generating a plasma and are therefore predestined for the generation of intense UV radiation and high luminances.

Laser-pumped plasma light sources

Laser-pumped plasma light sources are an innovative further development of classic plasma light sources. While traditional plasma light sources generate an arc through the flow of electric current between two electrodes in a gas medium, laser-pumped variants use a focused laser beam to generate the plasma. This method enables extremely high temperatures, which result in intense UV light emission and exceptionally high luminances. The resulting plasma is characterized by high stability, which ensures minimal noise from the light source.

Although the first ignition of the plasma continues to take place electrically by means of a high voltage between two electrodes, after ignition the plasma is supplied with energy and maintained exclusively by the laser beam. Since the electrodes are hardly stressed, the lifetime is significantly increased compared to classic plasma light sources and exceeds 10,000 hours.