Applications of Broadband Light Source
The three principal applications of broadband light sources are as follows. Let’s take a quick look at each one to get a better understanding of them.
A. For Optical Pumping
Broadband light sources are commonly used for optical pumping. Optical pumping is the use of light energy to elevate the atoms of a system from one energy level to another. To induce the transition among the levels, broadband or broad-spectrum is usually employed.
The most common light source used in optical pumping is a flashlamp. However, the range of performance of a flashlamp varies depending on the electrical input energy, lamp size, and light duration. Bottom line– a broadband light source is critical in optical pumping.
B. For Forensic Investigation
It is critical to identify biological evidence at the crime scene, such as blood, semen, saliva, and urine, in order to solve the case and reach a conclusion. This task, however, is difficult and cannot be performed using regular light sources. This is why we require special or unique light sources, such as broadband light sources.
Due to their characteristics, such as light absorption or fluorescence effect, biological evidence can be detected by forensic light sources or broadband light sources. Furthermore, because the rate of detection of biological evidence by human observation varies, a computerized detection method using a camera and FLS would provide a more precise detection.
C. For Ultraviolet (UV) Spectroscopy
Ultraviolet spectroscopy is a technique that is commonly adopted in many scientific fields. To mention a few, these include drug identification, quality control in the beverage sector, and chemical research. This approach determines the number of distinct wavelengths of UV or visible light absorbed or transmitted by a material.
And it used broadband light sources to accomplish this. A single xenon lamp is typically utilized as a high-intensity light source for both UV and visible ranges. Likewise, for instruments with two lamps, a tungsten or halogen lamp is commonly employed for visible light. In addition, the instrument uses a monochromator to split the light into a small range of wavelengths.
These are the most typical applications of broadband light sources. However, in addition to these 3 major applications, it is also used in multiple other applications such as fiber optics, fluorescence spectroscopy, polarimeters, laparoscopy, and much more.