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A demonstration of the 589 nm D 2 (left) and 590 nm D 1 (right) emission sodium D lines using a wick with salt water in a flame. The Fraunhofer C, F, G′, and h lines correspond to the alpha, beta, gamma, and delta lines of the Balmer series of emission lines of the hydrogen atom. The Fraunhofer letters are now rarely used for those lines.
Radiative transitions involve either the absorption or emission of a photon. As mentioned above, these transitions are denoted with solid arrows with their tails at the initial energy level and their tips at the final energy level. Nonradiative transitions arise through several different mechanisms, all differently labeled in the diagram.
The equivalent width of a spectral line is a measure of the area of the line on a plot of intensity versus wavelength in relation to underlying continuum level. It is found by forming a rectangle with a height equal to that of continuum emission, and finding the width such that the area of the rectangle is equal to the area in the spectral line.
Spectral line shape or spectral line profile describes the form of an electromagnetic spectrum in the vicinity of a spectral line – a region of stronger or weaker intensity in the spectrum. Ideal line shapes include Lorentzian , Gaussian and Voigt functions, whose parameters are the line position, maximum height and half-width. [ 1 ]
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 emission spectrum of iron. Emission is a process by which a substance releases energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Emission can occur at any frequency at which absorption can occur, and this allows the absorption lines to be determined from an emission spectrum.
These lines are named for the elements which cause them, such as the hydrogen alpha, beta, and gamma lines. A glowing object will show bright spectral lines. Dark lines are made by absorption, for example by light passing through a gas cloud, and these absorption lines can also identify chemical compounds.
In "line-by-line" methods, the change in spectral intensity (dI λ, W/sr/m 2 /μm) is numerically integrated using a wavelength increment small enough (less than 1 nm) to accurately describe the shape of each absorption line. The HITRAN database contains the parameters needed to describe 7.4 million absorption lines for 47 GHGs and 120 ...