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A spectral line may be observed either as an emission line or an absorption line. Which type of line is observed depends on the type of material and its temperature relative to another emission source. An absorption line is produced when photons from a hot, broad spectrum source pass through a cooler material.
The absorption that occurs due to a transition between two states is referred to as an absorption line and a spectrum is typically composed of many lines. The frequencies at which absorption lines occur, as well as their relative intensities, primarily depend on the electronic and molecular structure of the sample.
The Fraunhofer lines are typical spectral absorption lines. Absorption lines are narrow regions of decreased intensity in a spectrum, which are the result of photons being absorbed as light passes from the source to the detector. In the Sun, Fraunhofer lines are a result of gas in the Sun's atmosphere and outer photosphere. These regions have ...
The "visible" hydrogen emission spectrum lines in the Balmer series. H-alpha is the red line at the right. Four lines (counting from the right) are formally in the visible range. Lines five and six can be seen with the naked eye, but are considered to be ultraviolet as they have wavelengths less than 400 nm.
The classical example of a discrete spectrum (for which the term was first used) is the characteristic set of discrete spectral lines seen in the emission spectrum and absorption spectrum of isolated atoms of a chemical element, which only absorb and emit light at particular wavelengths. The technique of spectroscopy is based on this phenomenon.
According to the description of an atom interacting with the electromagnetic field, the absorption of light by the atom depends on the frequency of the incident photons. More precisely, the absorption is characterized by a Lorentzian of width Γ/2 (for reference, Γ ≈ 2π × 6 MHz for common rubidium D-line transitions [2]).
The spectrum appears in a series of lines called the line spectrum. This line spectrum is called an atomic spectrum when it originates from an atom in elemental form. Each element has a different atomic spectrum. The production of line spectra by the atoms of an element indicate that an atom can radiate only a certain amount of energy.
By recording the attenuation of light for various wavelengths, an absorption spectrum can be obtained. In physics, absorption of electromagnetic radiation is how matter (typically electrons bound in atoms) takes up a photon's energy—and so transforms electromagnetic energy into internal energy of the absorber (for example, thermal energy). [1]