SweetLambo
|
Light sources
Further information: List of light sources
There are many sources of light. The most common light
sources are thermal: a body at a given temperature emits a
characteristic spectrum of black-body radiation. A simple
thermal source is sunlight, the radiation emitted by the
chromosphere of the Sun at around 6,000 Kelvin peaks in
the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum when
plotted in wavelength units[17] and roughly 44% of sunlight
energy that reaches the ground is visible.[18] Another
example is incandescent light bulbs, which emit only around
10% of their energy as visible light and the remainder as
infrared. A common thermal light source in history is the
glowing solid particles in flames, but these also emit most of
their radiation in the infrared, and only a fraction in the
visible spectrum. The peak of the blackbody spectrum is in
the deep infrared, at about 10 micrometer wavelength, for
relatively cool objects like human beings. As the
temperature increases, the peak shifts to shorter
wavelengths, producing first a red glow, then a white one,
and finally a blue-white colour as the peak moves out of the
visible part of the spectrum and into the ultraviolet. These
colours can be seen when metal is heated to "red hot" or
"white hot". Blue-white thermal emission is not often seen,
except in stars (the commonly seen pure-blue colour in a
gas flame or a welder's torch is in fact due to molecular
emission, notably by CH radicals (emitting a wavelength
band around 425 nm, and is not seen in stars or pure
thermal radiation).
Atoms emit and absorb light at characteristic energies. This
produces "emission lines" in the spectrum of each atom.
Emission can be spontaneous, as in light-emitting diodes,
gas discharge lamps (such as neon lamps and neon signs,
mercury-vapor lamps, etc.), and flames (light from the hot
gas itself—so, for example, sodium in a gas flame emits
characteristic yellow light). Emission can also be stimulated,
as in a laser or a microwave maser.
Deceleration of a free charged particle, such as an electron,
can produce visible radiation: cyclotron radiation,
synchrotron radiation, and bremsstrahlung radiation are all
examples of this. Particles moving through a medium faster
than the speed of light in that medium can produce visible
Cherenkov radiation.
Certain chemicals produce visible radiation by
chemoluminescence. In living things, this process is called
bioluminescence. For example, fireflies produce light by this
means, and boats moving through water can disturb
plankton which produce a glowing wake.
Certain substances produce light when they are illuminated
by more energetic radiation, a process known as
fluorescence. Some substances emit light slowly after
excitation by more energetic radiation. This is known as
phosphorescence.
Phosphorescent materials can also be excited by
bombarding them with subatomic particles.
Cathodoluminescence is one example. This mechanism is
used in cathode ray tube television sets and computer
monitors.
A city illuminated by artificial lighting
Certain other mechanisms can produce light:
Bioluminescence
Cherenkov radiation
Electroluminescence
Scintillation
Sonoluminescence
triboluminescence
When the concept of light is intended to include very-high-
energy photons (gamma rays), additional generation
mechanisms include:
Particle–antiparticle annihilation
Radioactive decay
Units and measures
Main articles: Photometry (optics) and Radiometry
Light is measured with two main alternative sets of units:
radiometry consists of measurements of light power at all
wavelengths, while photometry measures light with
wavelength weighted with respect to a standardised model
of human brightness perception. Photometry is useful, for
example, to quantify Illumination (lighting) intended for
human use. The SI units for both systems are summarised in
the following tables.
|