Social Applications of Xenon in Gas Lamps
Xenon is widely used for the illumination purposes. Depending upon the electric field applied, the xenon gas gets excited. The radiation is emitted when the excited gas relaxes to the ground state. Sodium lamps which are in pressurized state are subjected to electric field. The electric field excites the starter gas which is xenon in this case. The excited xenon gas undergoes various cycles of excitation and relaxing causing illumination. The reason for using xenon gas in the sodium lamps is that it has relatively lower excitation potential and is a bad conductor of heat. These properties make xenon gas a better starter gas as compared to other gases. The lower thermal conductivity of the xenon gas aids to the longer life of the sodium lamp. One another advantage of using Xenon gas is it undergoes no chemical reaction even in excited state inside the sodium lamp. This makes sodium lamp to be operated for longer time without any damage or breakdown.
Applications of Xenon Arc Lamps:
Xenon arc lamps are the lamps which are in the high-pressure state having xenon gas which causes illumination. The xenon arc lamps are subjected to high electric filed which rapidly excites the xenon gas causing illumination. The major application of such arc lamps is in search lights, movie projectors and also in some automobiles head lights. The xenon arc lamps are precisely used for such purposes where accurate color temperature is desired. The color temperature of the xenon arc lamps is almost equivalent to the color temperature of the solar radiation during mid noon timings. Hence, possessing high color temperature, they are also employed in solar simulators which are further used for artificial sunlight for agricultural process and chemical reactions.
Xenon being a noble gas was expected to be inert in nature. But the advancement in the scientific studies led to discovery of excitation of the elements and molecules. Xenon is also extensively studied for such excitation behavior as it produces radiations when an external electric field is applied. This property of the Xenon gas made it a suitable candidate to be used for purposes such as laser radiation, discharge lamps, imaging and many more. The non-reactivity of the xenon gas and the lower thermal conductivity and lower excitation potential adds up to the employability of the xenon gas for illumination purposes. The following article briefly explains about the physical properties of xenon. Further, applications of xenon in gas lamps and in arc lamps are discussed in the subtopics.
