High intensity intensity ultraviolet (UV) and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation provide a singular dominant narrow-band emission at various wavelengths(lambda) between 108 - 351 nm. The use of dielectric-barrier discharges in its embodiment of an excimer lamp as a photon-source provides a novel method to induce surface modification. From its in relatively humble beginnings in ozone generation, the excimer lamp has found new applications in the field of low-temperature processing of surfaces. Herein, a 15 year perspective of work done at the Materials & Devices Group at University College London between 1992 and 2007 is presented. The excimer lamps' application to the modification of surfaces for materials processing include: photo-induced formation of high-kappa dielectric thin films and more recently the UV-induced photo-doping of silicon substrates, amongst others. With its robust yet inexpensive setup and flexibility of geometric configurations, they are easily coupled in parallel resulting in the provision of high photon fluxes over large areas. These sources also have an incoherent and almost monochromatic selectivity for application to process chemical pathway specific tasks by simple variation of the discharge gas mixture. These sources are an interesting addition to and an alternative to lasers for scalable industrial applications and have potential for a myriad of applications across different fields.