High Power Tuneable Light Source (280 nm — 1100 nm) TLS120Xe

The TLS120Xe is a high-power, compact and tunable light source that can be used for a wide range of applications.

Through monochromatization of the light emitted by a Xenon lamp in the range 280-1100 nm it is possible to use this source in a wide range of materials and photodetector characterisation applications in research, industry and OEM, including:

• Fluorescence imaging
• Photoluminescence / fluorimeter excitation
• Detector responsivity / QE evaluation
• Reflectance and transmittance analysis
• Thin film deposition monitoring
• Microscopy
• CCD / CMOS camera testing

A wide range of accessories is available including: fiber optics, liquid fibers and fiber bundles with SMA or FC/PC connectors, collimating optics, integrating spheres and optomechanical components.

Key Features:

• continuous high-power, monochromatic light output tunable between 280nm and 1100nm
• easy and intuitive user interface
• plug and play
• compact design

Internal Optics

The TLS120Xe contains a high-powered xenon light source in an ellipsoidal reflector that illuminates a concave holographic diffraction grating mounted on a precision angular stage. The white light from the light source is split into its component wavelengths by the diffraction grating. An output slit selects a range of these wavelengths. Unwanted light from higher diffractive orders is removed by means of order sorting filters mounted on a rotating filter wheel, which also functions as a shutter.

Bandwidth and Wavelength accuracy

The bandwidth of light emitted by the TLS120Xe can be managed by chosing particular slit widths. While narrower slits select a narrower spectral region, wider slits allow more of the spectrum to pass through. Having wider slits increases the overall output brightness.

The cost of wider slits is that a broader spectral range of the source light is allowed to pass through the device, complete with the spectral features that are present in the source. This means that both the peak wavelength and bandwidth may be different from the expected values. 

For narrow slits, the spectral filtering of the slits dominate the output spectral shape resulting in a well-defined peak:

• lower output power
• highest wavelength accuracy
• most accurate bandwidth
• overall intensity varies strongly with xenon spectral features in regions with sharp emission peaks

For wide slits, the spectral features of xenon may dominate the output spectral shape resulting in a bright but uneven peak:

• higher output power
• lower wavelength accuracy
• bandwidth less well-defined
• less overall variation in intensity

Output power as a function of selected wavelength for 4 slit sizes. (100 W bulb, ⌀ 1.5 mm 0.39 NA High OH SMA fibre.)

Spectral power as a function of selected wavelength for 4 slit sizes. Wider slits show more of the underlying Xenon spectrum. The 900 nm central wavelength graph was chosen as a particularly feature-rich region. (100 W bulb, ⌀ 1.5mm 0.39 NA High OH SMA fibre)