Two different heat treatment processes, vacuum high temperature and vacuum high frequency, are used to pre-treat cerium-tungsten electrodes for high-power pulsed xenon lamps. The metallographic morphology and the concentration-depth distribution and the evolution of valence state of cerium element of the cerium-tungsten electrodes were studied by some analysis and testing methods, like metallographic microscope, Electron probe micro-analyzer(EPMA) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The concentration-depth distribution of the elements was studied to analyze the behavior mechanism of the diffusion and enrichment of the cerium element in the electrode sample, and the effect of the heat treatment process of the cerium-tungsten electrode on the emission performance after lamp manufacture was clarified.