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Paschen-Back Effect

The document discusses the Paschen-Back effect, which occurs when an external magnetic field is strong enough to disrupt the coupling between the orbital and spin angular momenta of an atom. This results in a different pattern of energy level splitting than described by the Zeeman effect for weaker fields. The Paschen-Back effect can be visualized as the orbital and spin angular momenta independently precessing about the external magnetic field direction. The effect has astronomical significance as it is observed in some lithium spectra on the sun due to lithium's small spin-orbit splitting.

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Sreedevi Krishnakumar
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927 views3 pages

Paschen-Back Effect

The document discusses the Paschen-Back effect, which occurs when an external magnetic field is strong enough to disrupt the coupling between the orbital and spin angular momenta of an atom. This results in a different pattern of energy level splitting than described by the Zeeman effect for weaker fields. The Paschen-Back effect can be visualized as the orbital and spin angular momenta independently precessing about the external magnetic field direction. The effect has astronomical significance as it is observed in some lithium spectra on the sun due to lithium's small spin-orbit splitting.

Uploaded by

Sreedevi Krishnakumar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Index

Paschen-Back Effect
Hydrogen
In the presense of an external magnetic field, the energy levels of atoms are split. This concepts
splitting is described well by the Zeeman effect if the splitting is small compared to the
energy difference between the unperturbed levels, i.e., for sufficiently weak magnetic fields.
This can be visualized with the help of a vector model of total angular momentum. If the
magnetic field is large enough, it disrupts the coupling between the orbital and spin angular
momenta, resulting in a different pattern of splitting. This effect is called the Paschen-Back
effect.

In the weak field case the


vector model at left implies
that the coupling of the
orbital angular momentum L
to the spin angular
momentum S is stronger
than their coupling to the
external field. In this case
where spin-orbit coupling is
dominant, they can be
visualized as combining to
form a total angular
momentum J which then
precesses about the magnetic
field direction.

In the strong-field case, S


and L couple more strongly
to the external magnetic
field than to each other, and
can be visualized as
independently precessing
about the external field
direction.

For reference, the sodium Zeeman effect is reproduced below to show the nature of the
magnetic interaction for weak external magnetic fields.
The following is a model of the changes in the pattern if the magnetic field were strong
enough to decouple L and S. The resulting spectrum would be a triplet with the center line
twice the intensity of the outer lines.

To create this pattern, the projections of L and S in the z-direction have been treated
independently and the ms multiplied by the spin g-factor. The energy shift is expressed as a
multiple of the Bohr magneton mB. The selection rules explain why the transitions shown are
allowed and others not.
Sodium was used as the basis of the model for convenience, but the fields required to create
Paschen-Back conditions for sodium are unrealistically high. Lithium, on the other hand, has
a spin-orbit splitting of only 0.00004 eV compared to 0.0021 eV for sodium. Such small
energy values are sometimes expressed in "wavenumbers", or 1/l in cm-1. In these units the
lithium separation is about 0.3 cm-1and the sodium separation is about 17 cm-1 .The Paschen-
Back conditions are met in some lithium spectra observed on the Sun, so this effect does have
astronomical significance.

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