Applications
As the duration of the flash that is emitted by a xenon flashtube can be accurately controlled, and due to the high intensity of the light, xenon flashtubes are commonly used as photographic strobe lights. Xenon flashtubes are also used in very high speed or "stop-motion" photography, which was pioneered by Harold Edgerton in the 1930s. Because they can generate bright attention-getting flashes with a relatively small continuous input of electrical power, they are also used in aircraft warning lights, emergency vehicle lighting, fire alarm annunciator devices (horn lights), aircraft anticollision beacons, and other similar applications.
In dentistry it is used in so called "Light Box" device to light activate the hardening of various restorative and auxiliary light curing resin materials (for example Megaflash mini, Uni XS and other devices)
Due to their high-intensity and relative brightness at short wavelengths (extending into the ultraviolet) and short pulse widths, flashtubes are also ideally suited as light sources for pumping atoms in a laser to excited states where they can subsequently be stimulated to emit coherent monochromatic light. Proper selection of the filler gas is crucial here, so the maximum of radiated output energy is concentrated in the bands that are the best absorbed by the lasing medium; e.g. krypton flashtubes are more suitable than xenon flashtubes for pumping Nd:YAG lasers, as krypton emission in near infrared is better matched to the absorption spectrum of Nd:YAG.
Xenon flashtubes have been used to produce an intense flash of white light, some of which is absorbed by Nd:glass that produces the laser power for inertial confinement fusion. In total about 1 to 1.5% of the electrical power fed into the flashtubes is turned into useful laser light for this application.
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