1) The Zeeman effect occurs when a magnetic field is applied to certain atoms, causing an energy splitting in the atom's spectral emission lines.
2) For some atoms, known as anomalous Zeeman effect atoms, the splitting is inconsistent with the normal Zeeman effect description and instead seems disorganized.
3) It was discovered that considering the atom's total angular momentum, which includes both orbital momentum and intrinsic spin, can predict and explain the anomalous Zeeman effect.
1) The Zeeman effect occurs when a magnetic field is applied to certain atoms, causing an energy splitting in the atom's spectral emission lines.
2) For some atoms, known as anomalous Zeeman effect atoms, the splitting is inconsistent with the normal Zeeman effect description and instead seems disorganized.
3) It was discovered that considering the atom's total angular momentum, which includes both orbital momentum and intrinsic spin, can predict and explain the anomalous Zeeman effect.
1) The Zeeman effect occurs when a magnetic field is applied to certain atoms, causing an energy splitting in the atom's spectral emission lines.
2) For some atoms, known as anomalous Zeeman effect atoms, the splitting is inconsistent with the normal Zeeman effect description and instead seems disorganized.
3) It was discovered that considering the atom's total angular momentum, which includes both orbital momentum and intrinsic spin, can predict and explain the anomalous Zeeman effect.
1) The Zeeman effect occurs when a magnetic field is applied to certain atoms, causing an energy splitting in the atom's spectral emission lines.
2) For some atoms, known as anomalous Zeeman effect atoms, the splitting is inconsistent with the normal Zeeman effect description and instead seems disorganized.
3) It was discovered that considering the atom's total angular momentum, which includes both orbital momentum and intrinsic spin, can predict and explain the anomalous Zeeman effect.
Download as ODT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as odt, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1/ 2
Introduction
In 1896 Dutch physicist Pieter Zeeman discovered that, when a magnetic field is applied, an energy splitting is observed in the spectra emitted by certain atom (Nave, 2014; University of Tennessee, 2007). Its known that the potential energy in a magnetic dipole when a magnetic field is exerted is given by I ( ) = * B Where the magnetic dipole given by the orbital angular momentum(University of Tennessee, 2007) is =
e L 2 me
Knowing that angular momentum is quantized we have(Nave, 2014)
E=m l
eh B=ml B B 4 m
The equation defined above worked for a fair amount of atoms and the predictions were very accurate, thats why it was so strange for physicists in the 19th century when in 1897 Thomas Preston discovered that there were a lot of atoms that do not follow the rules defined for the normal Zeeman effect, instead the splitting in the fine structure seemed disorganized and the number of lines predicted was inconsistent whit the mathematical description for the normal Zeeman effect, this puzzled physicists from around the word until an interesting observation made by Alfred Land (Forman, 1970) came through. If we consider that the total angular momentum of the atom is not only defined by Bohrs magneton but instead by the sum of the magneton and some extra momentum, it is possible to predict this anomalous effects, this extra momentum is called the spin of the electron. Then the explanation of this phenomena follows like this: when the spin of a particular atom is 0, then a normal Zeeman effect will be observed, instead if the spin of the atom is nonzero then the anomalous Zeeman effect will show. Furthermore, the mathematical description of the Anomalous Zeeman effect is given by the following (University of California San Diego, 2015)If we consider an atom whit angular momentum L and spin momentum S, then the total angular momentum (J) is given by the sum
J =L+ S Where the total magnetic moment is =gl B
L2 S2 gs B h h
Where gl=1 a n d g s=2 thus
=
B 2 ( L+ 2 S ) h
Finally we can write the energy shift in the form
E= g m j
( 4ehmB )= g m B j
Where g is the Land factor, defined by
g= 1+
j ( j + 1 )+ s ( s+1 )+l ( l +1 ) 2 j ( j+ 1 )
In this experiment we used a high resolution spectrograph in order to observe
the fine structure of the Argon when a magnetic field close to 1T is applied, we focused the spectrograph in the infrared spectrum so we could find the lines in the spectrum with a wavelength of approximately 727,3nm. Then we compared our observations with a calibrated Neon line with a wavelength close to 724,5nm. Finally we measured the Argon spectrum perpendicular and parallel to the magnetic field in order to find the places of the sigma and pi lines in the observed data. Forman, P. (1970). Alfred Land and the Anomalous Zeeman Effect, 1919-1921. Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, 2, 153261. http://doi.org/10.2307/27757307 Nave, R. (2014). Zeeman Effect. Retrieved October 26, 2015, from http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/quantum/zeeman.html University of California San Diego. (2015). The Zeeman Effect. Retrieved November 9, 2015, from https://physics.ucsd.edu/students/courses/spring2015/physics4e/zeeman.p df University of Tennessee, K. (2007). The Zeeman Effect. Retrieved October 26, 2015, from http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/light/zeeman-split.html
