List of light sources

[and artificial processes that emit light. This article focuses on sources that produce wavelengths from about 390 to 700 nanometers called visible light.

Electric discharge

• Main article: Electric arc
  • Arc lamp
  • Flashtube
• Main article: Electrostatic discharge
  • Lightning
  • Electric spark
• Main article: Gas discharge lamp
  • Electrodeless lamp
  • Excimer lamp
  • Fluorescent lamp
    • Compact fluorescent lamp
    • Tanning lamp
    • Black lights
    • Geissler tube
    • Moore tube (Defunct)
    • "Ruhmkorff" lamp (Defunct)
  • High-intensity discharge lamp
    • Carbon arc lamps
    • Ceramic discharge metal-halide lamp
    • Hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide lamp
    • Mercury-vapor lamp
    • Metal-halide lamp
    • Sodium-vapor lamp
    • Sulfur lamp
    • Xenon arc lamp
  • Hollow-cathode lamp
  • Induction lighting
    • Sulfur lamp
      

      Sulfur lamps
  • Neon and argon lamps
    • Dekatron (Defunct)
      

      Dekatron
    • Nixie tube
  • Plasma lamp
  • Xenon flash lamp

Optic

• Black-body radiation
• Carbon button lamp (Defunct)
• Earthquake light
• Halogen lamp
• Incandescent light bulb
  

  Incandescent light bulb
• Lava
• Nernst lamp (Defunct)
• Volcanic eruption
  

  Volcanic eruption

Combustion

Lamps

• Argand lamp (Defunct)
• Argon flash
• Carbide lamp (Defunct)
• Betty lamp (Defunct)
• Butter lamp
• Flash-lamp (Defunct)
• Gas lighting
• Gas mantle
• Kerosene lamps
• Lanterns
• Limelights (Defunct)
• Oil lamps
  

  Oil lamp
• Tilley lamp (Defunct)

Other

• Bunsen burner
• Candle
  

  Candle
• Embers
• Explosives
• Fire
  

  Fire
• Fire whirl
  

  Fire whirl
• Fireworks
  

  Fireworks
• Flamethrower
• Muzzle flash
• Rubens' tube
• Torch

Nuclear and high-energy particle

• Annihilation
• Bremsstrahlung
• Čerenkov radiation
  

  Čerenkov radiation
• Cyclotron radiation
• Fusor
  

  Fusor
• Nuclear explosion
• Scintillation
• Synchrotron light source

Celestial and atmospheric

Nebula and stars

Starry sky, the Milky Way, and a shooting star

• Astronomical objects
  • Sun (sunlight, solar radiation)
    

    Sun
    • Corona
    • Photosphere
  • Stars (Starlight)
    • Nova / supernova / hypernova
    • Galaxies
      • Milky Way
    • Star clusters
  • Deep sky objects
    • Quasars
    • Accretion discs
    • Blazars
    • Magnetars
    • Pulsars
• Atmospheric entry
  • Meteors
    

    Meteor
    • Meteor showers
  • Bolide
    • Earth-grazing fireball
• Lightning (Plasma)
  • Sprite (lightning)
  • Ball lightning
  • Upper-atmospheric lightning
  • Dry lightning
• Aurorae
• Čerenkov radiation

Luminescence

Luminescence is emission of light by a substance not resulting from heat.

Chemiluminescence

Chemiluminescence is light resulting from a chemical reaction.

Bioluminescence

Bioluminescence is light resulting from biochemical reaction by a living organism.

• Aequorea victoria
• Antarctic krill
• Cavitation bubbles
• Foxfire
• Glowworm
• Luciferase
• Panellus stipticus
  

  Bioluminescent panellus stipticus
• Parchment worm
• Piddock

Electrochemiluminescence

Electrochemiluminescence is light resulting from electrochemical reaction.

Crystalloluminescence

Crystalloluminescence is light produced during crystallization.

Electroluminescence

Electroluminescence is light resulting of an electric current passed through a substance.

• Light-emitting diodes
• Organic light-emitting diodes
• Polymer light-emitting diodes
• AMOLED
• Light-emitting electrochemical cell
• Electroluminescent wires
• Field-induced polymer electroluminescent
• Laser
  

  Lasers
  • Chemical laser
  • Dye laser
  • Free-electron laser
  • Gas dynamic laser
  • Gas laser
  • Ion laser
  • Laser diode
  • Metal-vapor laser
  • Nonlinear optics
  • Quantum well laser
  • Ruby laser
  • Solid-state laser

Cathodoluminescence

Cathodoluminescence is light resulting from a luminescent material being struck by the electrons.

Mechanoluminescence

Mechanoluminescence is light resulting from a mechanical action on a solid.

• Triboluminescence

Triboluminescence, a type of mechanoluminescence, is light generated when bonds in a material are broken when that material is scratched, crushed, or rubbed.

• Fractoluminescence

Fractoluminescence, a type of mechanoluminescence, is light generated when bonds in certain crystals are broken by fractures.

• Piezoluminescence

Piezoluminescence, a type of mechanoluminescence, is light produced by the action of pressure on certain solids.

• Sonoluminescence

Sonoluminescence, a type of mechanoluminescence, is light resulting from imploding bubbles in a liquid when excited by sound.

Photoluminescence

Photoluminescence is light resulting from absorption of photons.

• Fluorescence

Fluorescence, a type of photoluminescence, is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation.

• Phosphorescence

Unlike fluorescence, a phosphorescent material does not immediately re-emit the radiation it absorbs.

Radioluminescence

Radioluminescent

Radioluminescence is light resulting from bombardment by ionizing radiation.

Thermoluminescence

Thermoluminescence is light from the re-emission of absorbed energy when a substance is heated.

Cryoluminescence

Cryoluminescence is the emission of light when an object is cooled.

See also

• Luminous efficacy
• Photometry (optics)

External links

• A CD spectrometer Color spectrographs of common light sources
• The Double Amici Prism Hand-Held Spectroscope in Practice - Dozens of raw visible spectra of a wide variety of light sources.