Atomic line widths

FIGURE 12 Influence of line shape on calibration parameters for atomic absorption spectrometry. (A) Comparison of atomic line widths for a hollow cathode lamp versus the atomic absorption line width observed in atmospheric pressure atom cells. (B) The slope and linear dynamic range of the calibration changes from I to N as the emission line width of the hollow cathode lamp becomes broader. 

High-resolution spectroscopy used to observe hyperfme structure in the spectra of atoms or rotational stnicture in electronic spectra of gaseous molecules connnonly must contend with the widths of the spectral lines and how that compares with the separations between lines. Tln-ee contributions to the linewidth will be mentioned here tlie natural line width due to tlie finite lifetime of the excited state, collisional broadening of lines, and the Doppler effect. 

Another feature of the spectrum shown in Figure 10.19 is the narrow width of the absorption lines, which is a consequence of the fixed difference in energy between the ground and excited states. Natural line widths for atomic absorption, which are governed by the uncertainty principle, are approximately 10 nm. Other contributions to broadening increase this line width to approximately 10 nm. 

Equation 10.1 has an important consequence for atomic absorption. Because of the narrow line width for atomic absorption, a continuum source of radiation cannot be used. Even with a high-quality monochromator, the effective bandwidth for a continuum source is 100-1000 times greater than that for an atomic absorption line. As a result, little of the radiation from a continuum source is absorbed (Pq Pr), and the measured absorbance is effectively zero. Eor this reason, atomic absorption requires a line source. 

Until the advent of lasers the most intense monochromatic sources available were atomic emission sources from which an intense, discrete line in the visible or near-ultraviolet region was isolated by optical filtering if necessary. The most often used source of this kind was the mercury discharge lamp operating at the vapour pressure of mercury. Three of the most intense lines are at 253.7 nm (near-ultraviolet), 404.7 nm and 435.7 nm (both in the visible region). Although the line width is typically small the narrowest has a width of about 0.2 cm, which places a limit on the resolution which can be achieved. 

Lasers (see Chapter 9) are sources of intense, monochromatic radiation which are ideal for Raman spectroscopy and have entirely replaced atomic emission sources. They are more convenient to use, have higher intensity and are more highly monochromatic for example, the line width at half-intensity of 632.8 nm (red) radiation from a helium-neon laser can be less than 0.05 cm. ... 

Because of the narrow line width, absorption of laser energy can excite one specific state in an atom or molecule. The laser is tuned so that its wavelength matches an absorption corresponding to the desired state, which may be an electronic state or vibrational state. Absorption of laser energy can lead to excitation of specified states much more effectively than absorption of light from conventional light sources. 

It would appear that measurement of the integrated absorption coefficient should furnish an ideal method of quantitative analysis. In practice, however, the absolute measurement of the absorption coefficients of atomic spectral lines is extremely difficult. The natural line width of an atomic spectral line is about 10 5 nm, but owing to the influence of Doppler and pressure effects, the line is broadened to about 0.002 nm at flame temperatures of2000-3000 K. To measure the absorption coefficient of a line thus broadened would require a spectrometer with a resolving power of 500000. This difficulty was overcome by Walsh,41 who used a source of sharp emission lines with a much smaller half width than the absorption line, and the radiation frequency of which is centred on the absorption frequency. In this way, the absorption coefficient at the centre of the line, Kmax, may be measured. If the profile of the absorption line is assumed to be due only to Doppler broadening, then there is a relationship between Kmax and N0. Thus the only requirement of the spectrometer is that it shall be capable of isolating the required resonance line from all other lines emitted by the source. 

Spectral interferences in AAS arise mainly from overlap between the frequencies of a selected resonance line with lines emitted by some other element this arises because in practice a chosen line has in fact a finite bandwidth . Since in fact the line width of an absorption line is about 0.005 nm, only a few cases of spectral overlap between the emitted lines of a hollow cathode lamp and the absorption lines of metal atoms in flames have been reported. Table 21.3 includes some typical examples of spectral interferences which have been observed.47-50 However, most of these data relate to relatively minor resonance lines and the only interferences which occur with preferred resonance lines are with copper where europium at a concentration of about 150mgL 1 would interfere, and mercury where concentrations of cobalt higher than 200 mg L 1 would cause interference. 

The formation of monomer and dimer of (salen)Co AIX3 complex can be confirmed by Al NMR. Monomer complex la show Al NMR chemical shift on 5=43.1 ppm line width =30.2 Hz and dimer complex lb 5=37.7 ppm line width =12.7 Hz. Further instrumental evidence may be viewed by UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The new synthesized complex showed absorption band at 370 nm. The characteristic absorption band of the precatalyst Co(salen) at 420 nm disappeared (Figure 1). It has long been known that oxygen atoms of the metal complexes of the SchifT bases are able to coordinate to the transition and group 13 metals to form bi- and trinuclear complex [9]. On these proofs the possible structure is shown in Scheme 1. 

Hence, nuclear resonance absorption of y-photons (the Mbssbauer effect) is not possible between free atoms (at rest) because of the energy loss by recoil. The deficiency in y-energy is two times the recoil energy, 2Er, which in the case of Fe is about 10 times larger than the natural line width F of the nuclear levels involved (Fig. 2.4). 

The emission spectmm of Co, as recorded with an ideal detector with energy-independent efficiency and constant resolution (line width), is shown in Fig. 3.6b. In addition to the expected three y-lines of Fe at 14.4, 122, and 136 keV, there is also a strong X-ray line at 6.4 keV. This is due to an after-effect of K-capture, arising from electron-hole recombination in the K-shell of the atom. The spontaneous transition of an L-electron filling up the hole in the K-shell yields Fe-X X-radiation. However, in a practical Mossbauer experiment, this and other soft X-rays rarely reach the y-detector because of the strong mass absorption in the Mossbauer sample. On the other hand, the sample itself may also emit substantial X-ray fluorescence (XRF) radiation, resulting from photo absorption of y-rays (not shown here). Another X-ray line is expected to appear in the y-spectrum due to XRF of the carrier material of the source. For rhodium metal, which is commonly used as the source matrix for Co, the corresponding line is found at 22 keV. 

Abstract Sonoluminescence from alkali-metal salt solutions reveals excited state alkali - metal atom emission which exhibits asymmetrically-broadened lines. The location of the emission site is of interest as well as how nonvolatile ions are reduced and electronically excited. This chapter reviews sonoluminescence studies on alkali-metal atom emission in various environments. We focus on the emission mechanism does the emission occur in the gas phase within bubbles or in heated fluid at the bubble/liquid interface Many studies support the gas phase origin. The transfer of nonvolatile ions into bubbles is suggested to occur by means of liquid droplets, which are injected into bubbles during nonspherical bubble oscillation, bubble coalescence and/or bubble fragmentation. The line width of the alkali-metal atom emission may provide the relative density of gas at bubble collapse under the assumption of the gas phase origin. 

Fig. 13.8 Dependences of the line width of Na atom emission on acoustic power for 2 M NaCl solutions with ethanol concentrations of 0.5 mM (asterisks), 1 mM (triangles) and 2 mM (closed circles). The Na line width without the addition of ethanol is denoted by open circles and has a maximum at 4.8 W...

Another example of alternating line width effect was found in the spectra of durosemiquinone (6),9,10 where the effect is due to alkali metal ions hopping back and forth from one oxygen atom to the other. The rates depend on the alkali metal as shown in Table 5.3. 

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