Metal Halide Mercury Lamp Spectrum

Charles wheatstone observed the spectrum of an electric discharge in mercury vapor in 1835 and noted the ultraviolet lines in that spectrum.

Metal halide mercury lamp spectrum.

In 1860 john thomas way used arc lamps operated in a mixture of air and mercury vapor at atmospheric pressure for lighting. Metal halide lamps are among the most energy efficient sources of white light available today. A metal halide lamp is an electrical lamp that produces light by an electric arc through a gaseous mixture of vaporized mercury and metal halides compounds of metals with bromine or iodine it is a type of high intensity discharge hid gas discharge lamp. A halogen is a monovalent element which readily forms negative ions.

Thus mercury controls the current voltage lamp characteristics while the metal halide salts contribute primarily to the quantity of light output and the spectral. Some manufacturers mix the metal halide technology with others to improve light output and add a few variations into the color spectrum for a more complete solution. They offer high efficacy excellent color rendition long service life and good lumen maintenance. Developed in the 1960s they are similar to mercury vapor lamps but contain additional metal halide compounds in the quartz arc tube.

1 how it works. Metal halide salts exhibit lower vapor pressures than the elemental mercury added to the bulb which also serves as a buffering gas to determine the operating voltage of the lamp. The german physicist leo arons 1860 1919 studied mercury discharges in 1892 and developed a lamp based on a mercury arc. A halide is a chemical compound of a halogen combined with an electropositive element or in the case of lamps.