Shortwave uv has been used for over 100 years in the desinfection of baterial and viral organisms.
Best uv lamp for minerals.
Short wave uv lights are the most commonly used by fluorescent mineral collections since about 80 to 90 of all fluorescent minerals will fluoresce brighter under short wave sw than under long wave lw.
This is the uv lamp we used when taking the pictures for the minerals on our fluorescent minerals page.
However a few minerals will show up better under lw.
Uv sensitive beads react to the intensity of the light and change color they all start out white and darken based on the intensity of the uv.
Convoy c8 365nm flashlight this light is the next generation convoy the convoy redesigned.
Midwave mw bulbs have become more popular among fluorescent mineral collectors recently because certain minerals display most prominently at the uvb wavelengths around 311nm.
Uv lamps used to illuminate large mineral displays or used for outdoor field work have much higher voltages than the small uv lamps used for specimen examination by students.
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The best most efficient longwave uv source to use for mineral fluorescence is a special white phosphor coated blacklight bulb combined with an external visible light blocking filter.
Broadband uvb bulb have been around for a while using a phosphor driven by low pressure mercury emission.
Note that these lights must have a uv pass visible blocking filter a must for any light used with fluorescent minerals even led lights.
It is a basic no frills field lamp.
There is a lamp stand available for this lamp for hands free use.
The downside however is that it is only a 4 watt uv lamp which means you will need to be close to the minerals with the uv lamp to see them glow.
While this approach is considerably more expensive than using ordinary blacklight bulbs it provides much purer uv light allowing less visible light to mask the fluorescence.
Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation in the part of the spectrum between x rays and visible light approximately 180nm to 400 nm.
365nm longwave led flashlights are a must.
This specific wavelegth of uv radiation is in the uvc range of ultraviolet light.
It s small and lightweight size make it ideal for taking it along with you.
This is an attempt to visualize the pattern and intensity of the uv light generated by each light.
Ultraviolet tools specializes in ultraviolet radiation for fluorescent mineral hobby fortunately most fluorescent minerals only respond to shortwave ultraviolet.