What is Full Spectrum Light?

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All of us know that light is white, at least the light that comes from the sun. We have also studied how putting a prism in the path of sunlight will split it into its component colors. Thus the white light we see is actually based on a number of different colored light all combined into one.

What most of us do not know is that light as such is an electromagnetic radiation, and therefore has a wavelength. Depending on how large this wavelength is the color of the light differs. Thus red light is light in the range of 1500 to 2000 ºK while dark blue to purple light is about 8000 ºK. White light is around 4000 to 4200 ºK.

The ºK is there because the radiation is measured in temperature, and when it comes to light it is called color temperature. So if we take any light bulb, if we’re interested enough we can find out what the color temperature is for the light that it emits.

For example a low pressure sodium vapor lamp emits light around the 2700 ºK mark, while a high pressure sodium vapor lamp emits light up to 6000 ºK. Even here the color rendering is not constant because there are large gaps in-between in the radiation.

Fluorescent light on the other hand gives better color rendering and although we can see only white light, the light is available between 2700 and 6000 ºK for the warm white ones and between 4000 and 8000 ºK for the cool white ones.

Xenon lights are the best when it comes to color rendering and give out a full spectrum light which means that the light that it emits encompasses the full range of the visible and invisible spectrum. Of course it is still not equal to the sun. It is however the closest in terms of artificial light to the sun.

Getting full spectrum light is not easy artificially. Nowadays LED’s are used because it is possible to combine a number of different colors to obtain the color spectrum that is wanted. With the pace of advancements in lighting technology however the day when we are able to mimic the sun and get full spectrum light is not far.

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