Gas discharge lamps was Re: Blue Bulb Physics

[Marty Halvorson <martyh@nm.net>]

A recent project I worked on involved using gas discharge lamps because of
their emissions in the blue frequency range and the fact that blue lasers
are very, very expensive.

These lamps are very efficient.  The majority of the input energy is
converted to photons, unlike normal incandesent lamps.  When we first got
the lamps (50 Watts) with a lens that puts the majority of the light into a
relatively parallel beam, we turned it on and with in a very few minutes
the wall, about 8 feet away, was smoking.

Unfortunately for us, the lamps didn't provide enough blue light.  A 125
Watt lamp only gave us about 8 milli-watts of blue light, so we ended up
using a laser anyway.

BTW, halogen lamps are just incandesent lamps with the filament encased in
a small glass bulb containing high pressure inert gas.  The high pressure
gas keeps the filament intact under high current conditions.  It's the high
current that makes halogen lamps brighter than equivalent normal
incandesent lamps.

Peace
Marty Halvorson


Peace

Marty Halvorson
Judicial Information Division
NM Administrative Office of the Courts
martyh@nm.net