Different Types of Light Sources

Tungsten Halogen light sources are mostly used to do measurements in the visible and NIR range. AvaLight Halogen sources provide a very stable output combined with long bulb lifetime. The high-stability enables their use in reflection and transmission configurations or as an irradiance calibration light source. Most importantly, the Halogen light’s spectral output is a smooth black body curve which provides for maximised dynamic range.

Avantes Deuterium light sources are known for their stable output and are used for UV absorption or reflection measurements. These can also be used as irradiance calibration sources due to their high stability. The standard AvaLight-DH-S mixes the Halogen light with the Deuterium light, thus producing a wide spectral-range light source. The output spectrum of Deuterium light sources exhibits several peaks, with a prominent peak at 656 nm. The AvaLight-DH-S-BAL incorporates a dichroic beam splitter installed to minimize these peaks, providing a smooth spectrum from 200-2500 nm.

Avantes pulsed Xenon light sources, the AvaLight-XE and AvaLight-XE-HP (high- power version) are used in applications where a long lifetime and high output power is needed, such as in fluorescence measurements. These are affordable UV sources, but the spectral output is not as smooth and continuous as the AvaLight Halogen and Deuterium light sources. LED light sources, such as our AvaLight-LED and its high-power version, the AvaLight-HPLED provide high power at a precise wavelength. A typical application for AvaLight-LED sources is fluorescence. They provide long lifetime, short warm-up time and high stability.

For wavelength calibration Avantes offers a variety of sources including Argon, Mercury- Argon, Neon, Zinc, and Cadmium. All Avantes spectrometers are factory wavelength-calibrated and do not require recalibration, as they have fixed slits and optics. For those customers who wish to perform their own calibrations, the AvaLight-CAL light sources can be used for recalibration purposes. For auto-calibration, AvaSoftX-Full provides a calibration process to facilitate this.