High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is a separation technique for introducing sample mixture into chromatographic columns. Because the components in the sample solution have different partition coefficients between the mobile phase and the stationary phase, they are separated into individual components and flow out of the column in turn after repeated adsorption-desorption partitioning process in the relative motion of the two phases. The detection of these components is mainly based on the absorption spectrum of ultraviolet spectrophotometer. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is commonly used for protein purification, routine process monitoring, quality control and biotechnology research in the manufacture of drugs and beverages.

The current HPLC detector usually uses deuterium lamp as its main light source. HPLC manufacturers choose deuterium lamps because the stability of light output is very high during the measurement period. In HPLC, the high light output stability of UV light source ensures the detection of low concentration compounds. Compared with other ultraviolet lamps such as xenon flashes or mercury lamps, the stability of deuterium lamps has been improved by two orders of magnitude.