What's the difference between Mercury Arc Lamp and Xenon?
Share
Spectral range
Mercury lamps produce many narrow spectral lines, spanning the ultraviolet to the visible range.
Xenon lamps emit a nearly continuous spectrum, covering a wide range from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared (about 200–2000 nm).
Working with optical filters
Mercury lamps are very efficient at wavelengths where they have spectral lines, and there are well-established matching filters available. At wavelengths without spectral lines, they deliver essentially no output, which means they cannot meet some fluorescence microscopy needs.
Xenon lamps emit a nearly continuous spectrum, so as long as the filter’s passband is covered by that spectrum, you’ll get output. If you use a narrow bandpass filter, most of the light is blocked and only a small fraction gets through, so the efficiency is relatively low.
