A uniform source sphere was designed and built that included both tungsten-halogen and xenon arc lamps. The spectral radiance of the system and arc lamp stability were measured. Results show significant spectral radiance in the blue region of the spectrum, which is greatly improved over conventional systems that use only tungsten-halogen lamps. Short-term stability measurements of the radiance due to one arc lamp show stability of 0.26%. This value is more than ten times greater than that of a tungsten-halogen lamp, which is inherently more stable, but the xenon lamp is sufficiently stable for many applications. Considering the improved blue performance, xenon lamps offer possibilities for uniform source spheres used to calibrate cameras that operate in the blue region of the spectrum, such as remote sensing systems.

Date Published: 20 October 1998
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 3428, Illumination and Source Engineering, (20 October 1998); doi: 10.1117/12.327952

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3428:
Illumination and Source Engineering
Angelo V. Arecchi, Editor(s)