Gas Discharge Lamp - Noble Gas Ionization, High Energy Photon Emission | Ideal For Infrared, Visible & Ultraviolet Lighting

Gas-discharge lamps are a family of artificial light sources that generate light by sending an electrical discharge through an ionized gas. Typically, such lamps use a noble gas (argon, neon, krypton and xenon) or a mixture of these gases. Most lamps are filled with additional materials, like mercury, sodium, and/or metal halides. In operation the gas is ionized, and free electrons, accelerated by the electrical field in the tube, collide with gas and metal atoms. Some electrons in the atomic orbitals of these atoms are excited by these collisions to a higher energy state. When the excited atom falls back to a lower energy state, it emits a photon of a characteristic energy, resulting in infrared, visible light, or ultraviolet radiation.