As in a pure xenon lamp, the majority of the light produced radiates from a pinpoint-sized cloud of plasma near the face of the cathode. However, the plasma cloud in a xenon-mercury lamp is often smaller than that of a pure xenon lamp of equivalent size, due to the electron stream losing its energy more rapidly to the heavier mercury atoms. Xenon-mercury short-arc lamps have a bluish-white spectrum and extremely high UV output. These lamps are used primarily for UV curing applications, sterilizing objects, and generating ozone.
