Article
Article
Paschen-Back effect
Article By:
Jenkins, Francis A. Formerly, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California.
Watson, William W. Formerly, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
Last reviewed:August 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.491700
An effect on spectral lines obtained when the light source is placed in a very strong magnetic field, first explained by F. Paschen and E. Back in 1921. In such a field the anomalous Zeeman effect, which is obtained with weaker fields, changes over to what is, in a first approximation, the normal Zeeman effect. The term “very strong field” is a relative one, since the field strength required depends on the particular lines being investigated. It must be strong enough to produce a magnetic splitting that is large compared to the separation of the components of the spin-orbit multiplet. See also: Atomic structure and spectra; Zeeman effect
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