The Zeeman Effect A.

Tarr
The normal Zeeman effect is first examined in the Cd red line resulting from a Hg-Cd lamp in the presence of an external static magnetic field using a LummerGehrcke plate. Observations of light emitted both transverse and perpendicular to the magnetic field are used to experimentally determine the Bohr magneton. The anomalous Zeeman effect is then observed in the Hg green line and also used to determine the Bohr magneton. The polarization states of the occurring lines are considered in both portions of the experiment.

Physics 4321, April 3, 2012

I. Introduction
The Zeeman effect is a quantum phenomenon that accounts for the splitting of spectral lines into components in the presence of a static magnetic field. H.A. Lorentz first predicted the Zeeman effect in his paper on the classical theory of the electron in 18951. Experimental evidence for Lorentz' prediction shortly came after in 1897 when Pieter Zeeman, a former student of Lorentz, observed the splitting of a single spectral line in asbestos impregnated with salt that was in the presence of a magnetic field2. Zeeman's observed what is known as the normal Zeeman effect, and both he and Lorentz received the Nobel Prize for their work. Scientists at that time, however, were unable to explain occurrences of line splitting in certain atoms that did not follow the theory presented in Zeeman's paper. It was not until the 1920's when the foundations for quantum mechanics were developed that this splitting could be explained. Heisenberg reworked Zeeman's theory taking electron spin3 into account and noted that transitions between nonzero spin states in the presence of a magnetic field resulted in what is known as the anomalous Zeeman effect4. Our experiment used a Lummer-Gehrcke plate to observe the normal Zeeman effect in the Cd red line and the anomalous Zeeman effect in the Hg green line. These effects were studied in light emitted from Hg-Cd lamp both perpendicular and parallel to the magnetic field, and through this treatment, the polarization states of the spectral lines were considered.

II. Theoretical Considerations

A. The Normal Zeeman Effect
The normal Zeeman effect results from the coupling between an external magnetic field and the total electronic angular momentum in the direction of the applied field. The normal effect is observed only in transitions between states of total spin , so for this part of the experiment, only the transition in Cd is considered. The components of angular momentum are given by

with

In the absence of the magnetic field, these states are degenerate, and the wavelength 5 corresponding to the Cd red line described by the transition above is . When the magnetic field is turned on, the degenerate states split into different states, which causes the splitting of the Cd red line into multiple spectral components. The change in energy from the initial state for each component is

Here, is the Bohr magneton, and its value is determined in the course of this experiment to verify the theory presented above. The energy shifts in Cd as a result of the normal Zeeman effect are shown below in Fig. 1.

Figure 1. Energy diagram describing the normal Zeeman effect in Cd red line

B. The Anomalous Zeeman Effect

The anomalous Zeeman effect is driven by the same mechanisms as the normal Zeeman effect, except this phenomenon shows spectral line splitting for transitions between states with nonzero total spin . This portion of the experiment examines splitting in the Hg green line, which is described by the transition . The wavelength of this transition in the absence 5 of a magnetic field is . To account for the nonzero spin, the expression for the energy shift, shown in Eq. 3, is multiplied by the Land g-factor to give

If , then and the g-factor becomes 1, which gives us the energy shift for the normal Zeeman effect. If the Land factor is different between the two states, then the energy spacing will also be different. This results in the splitting into more spectral components than the normal Zeeman effect, and the relative intensities are also different for each component. The energy shifts for the anomalous Zeeman effect in the Hg green are illustrated below in Fig. 2.

Figure 2. Energy diagram describing the anomalous Zeeman effect in Hg green line.

C. Lummer-Gehrcke Plate
In this experiment, the Zeeman effect is observed using a Lummer-Gehrcke plate. This device works by first directing the incident light from the Hg-Cd lamp into a long plane-parallel plate of quartz using a prism (P in Fig. 3). The light within the plate bounces back and forth with almost perfect reflection, but a small fraction leaks out each time the light ray strikes the plate. A lens (L in Fig. 3) is then used to overlap the light that emerged to produce an interference pattern on the screen AD, which can be seen below in Fig. 3. In the presence of the magnetic field, each

Figure 3. Multiple reflection between the surfaces of a Lummer-Gehrcke plate. For this experiment, d is 4 mm.

line in the interference pattern will split symmetrically, as shown in Fig. 4 on the following page. Referring to quantities shown in Fig. 4, the wavelength shift in the spectral components is given by

where

is the index of refraction of the plate. For Cd red line, the index of refraction is , and for the Hg green line, . If the shift in wavelength is small compared to the initial transition wavelength, that is , the wavelength shift can then be expressed as

where numbers

is a function of the Land g-factors and the secondary total angular momentum for both states. In the Cd red line, this function takes on a value of 1 since .

Figure 4. Appearance of three adjacent fringes and definition of the quantities a, s, and .

D. Polarization States
The polarization of the spectral lines depends on the corresponding transition and the direction of the emitted light with respect to the magnetic field. The light produced from the transition can be expressed as a superposition of its linear and circular components, where , respectively. The component of light is called the -component and the components are called the -components, respectively. For transitions with , no photons will propagate in the direction of the magnetic field. Consequently, the spectral line corresponding to this transition will not be seen when viewing light emitted parallel to the field, and the observed light will be circularly polarized. Conversely, when viewing light emitted perpendicular to the field, the lines will be linearly polarized.

III. Apparatus and Procedure

A. Equipment
As described earlier, the Zeeman effect was observed in light emitted from a Hg-Cd lamp using a Lummer-Gehrcke plate. The lamp was placed between the poles of the electromagnet, which had hollow pole pieces to observe light emitted parallel to the field. The electromagnet was powered by a DC power supply, and the voltage was measured using a standard digital voltmeter. The resulting interference pattern was observed and measured using a telescope assembly with optional quarter-wave plate and plane polarizer, which both attach to the optical system. The quarter-wave plate and plane polarizer were used to determine whether the spectral lines were linearly or circularly polarized. The quarter-wave plate changes linearly polarized light to circular and vice versa, and linear polarizer determines the polarization direction. The measurements for the splitting and fringe separation were obtained using an indicator gauge attached to the telescope. Since the lamp emitted multiple wavelengths of light, filters were used

Figure 5. The Zeeman effect experimental apparatus.

to separate the spectral lines of interest. The Cd red line was observed and isolated using a red filter, while the Hg green line was isolated using a green filter. The setup for the optical system is shown above in Fig. 5.

B. Calibration of the Magnetic Field

In order to determine the magnetic field strength for a given voltage, the hysteresis of the electromagnet must be measured. This is achieved by measuring the magnetic field using a gaussmeter at different applied voltages. The voltage is changed using a cycling procedure in which the voltage is run up to the maximum voltage, then back down to zero, and finally to desired voltage. The magnetic field was measured for applied voltages ranging from 0 V to a maximum of about 12.3 V, with steps of roughly 1 V. Two sets of data points were obtained, one for increasing the voltage from 0 V to 12 V, and the other for decreasing the voltage from 12.3 V back down to 0 V. A least squares fit was found for the data of increasing V, and this was used to determine the value of the magnetic field for a given applied voltage.

C. Measurements for the Normal Zeeman Effect

The normal Zeeman effect was observed in the Cd red line using the optical system and the red filter. Before the magnetic field was turned on, three adjacent fringes were chosen and the quantity was measured with the indicator gauge. Then beginning with 4 V, the applied voltage of the magnet coils was increased in increments of 1 V up to 12 V, and the splitting of the spectral was measured at each voltage to determine . These values were used to calculate at different values of the magnetic field using Eq. 6. The polarization of the lines was determined using the quarter-wave plate and the linear polarizer. For circularly polarized light, the quarter-wave plate changes this to linear, and rotation of the linear polarizer will block out the lines at the right rotation. If the light is linearly polarized before passing through the plate, rotation of the polarizer will not change the appearance of the lines. The polarization observations and the measurements for and were performed for light emitted perpendicular and parallel to the magnetic field.

D. Measurements for the Anomalous Zeeman Effect

The anomalous Zeeman effect was observed in the Hg green line using the optical system and the green filter. The procedure for measuring the splitting was carried out identically to the procedure for the normal Zeeman effect, but only the splitting for light emitted perpendicular to the magnetic field was considered. Additionally, the linear polarizer was used to eliminate light polarized parallel to the field in these measurements. Although splitting was measured only for the perpendicular orientation, the polarization states were observed for both orientations using the quarter-wave plate and the linear polarizer.

IV. Data and Analysis

A. Magnetic Field Calibration
Measurements for the magnetic field using the gaussmeter for increasing and decreasing voltage verify the reproducibility of the magnetic field using the aforementioned cycling

procedure. The results also show that there are no noticeable hysteresis effects. The data for increasing and decreasing voltage are shown below in Fig. 6. From the plot it can be seen that the variation in the magnetic field for both sets is small, which confirms that the hysteresis effects are negligible.
0.100 0.000 -0.100 0.00 Magnetic Field (T) -0.200 -0.300 -0.400 -0.500 -0.600 -0.700 -0.800 Voltage (V DC) Increasing V Decreasing V 5.00 10.00 15.00

Figure 6. Calibration of the magnetic field measured with a gaussmeter. A least squares fit of was found for the increasing voltage data, as shown by the black line.

B. Determination of B from the Normal Zeeman Effect

The Bohr magneton can be calculated from a plot of as a function of the magnetic field . The values for were calculated using Eq. 6 and the measured values for and at different values of the magnetic field. From Eq. 7 it is clear the slope of the vs. curve is

Therefore the slope of the line of best fit for the measurements of as a function of can be used to find the product . For the normal Zeeman effect, is 1 so the value for the Bohr magneton can be found exactly. Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 below show the vs. curves for light emitted parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field, respectively. In both plots it is evident that the energy shifts that occur in the presence of the field are a linear function of , which is consistent with the theory. Linear regression analysis of the data for light emitted parallel to field gives a value for the Bohr magneton of . Comparing this with the published value5 of gives a percent error of only 2.5%, indicating that the theory presented in the previous sections accurately describes the spectral line splitting of Cd red line in the presence of a magnetic field. The error can be accounted for by the imprecision of the indicator gauge, which had a large standard deviation of 2.5 units.

Observations of the polarization states of the spectral lines from light emitted parallel to the field indicated the light was circularly polarized. This is also in agreement with the statement made earlier that the -component of light vanishes because photons for do not propagate in the direction of the magnetic field, which leaves only the circular components to be observed.
14.00 12.00 10.00 8.00 6.00 4.00 2.00 0.00 -0.800

(pm)

-0.600

-0.400

-0.200

0.000

Magnetic Field (T) Figure 7. Plot of wavelength shift in Cd as a function magnetic field for light emitted parallel to the field. A least squares fit of was found, as shown by the black line.

Analysis of the data for light emitted perpendicular to the magnetic field gives a value of , which has a percent error of only 0.4% when compared with the published value. These results also provide strong evidence for the theory shown in Eq. 3, which quantifies line splitting in the normal Zeeman effect. Investigation into the polarization of light emitted perpendicular to the field also revealed that light was predominantly linearly polarized as expected, but there was evidence of slight circular polarization that arose from instrumental effects.
16.00 14.00 12.00 10.00 8.00 6.00 4.00 2.00 0.00 -0.800

(pm)

-0.600

-0.400

-0.200

0.000

Magnetic Field (T)

Figure 8. Plot of wavelength shift in Cd as a function magnetic field for light emitted perpendicular to the field. A least squares fit of was found, as shown by the black line.

C. Determination of

B from the Anomalous Zeeman Effect

Examination of the polarization states for the anomalous Zeeman effect yielded the same results as in the normal Zeeman effect. Light emitted parallel to the magnetic field was circularly polarized, while light emitted perpendicular to the field was linearly polarized. Introduction of the Land g-factor into the equation for the energy shift for makes it difficult to determine a constant value for since it also depends on . Instead, was estimated based on the g-factors for the states involved in the Hg green line transition, and the product was compared the value obtained from the slope of our plot. The transition for the Hg green line is . From Eq. 5, the g-factor for is , and the g-factor for is . Since a linear polarizer was used to block out light polarized parallel to , only the transitions are considered. Substituting in the gfactors and the values into Eq. 4, we see three symmetrical pairs of line shifting given by

The coefficients of the expressions in Eq. 10 are all possible values of . Unfortunately the optical system used to measure the splitting was not powerful enough to detect these three different pairs, and the lines were blurred together to form one symmetric pair. The measurements for were made with respect to middle of each line, which most closely represents the symmetric pair for = , the middle value for the energy shifts. Based on this argument, was estimated to be 2. The theoretical product was therefore
10.00 8.00 (pm) 6.00 4.00 2.00 0.00 -0.500 -0.400 -0.300 -0.200 -0.100 0.000

Magnetic Field (T) Figure 9. Plot of wavelength shift in Hg as a function magnetic field for light emitted and polarized perpendicular to the field. A least squares fit of was found, as shown by the black line.

. The measurements of for the anomalous Zeeman effect are shown above in Fig. 9. Linear regressive analysis of this plot gives a value of , which is within 13.8% of the published value. Although the error in this value is

much larger than in the Zeeman effect, it is still in strong agreement with the product predicted by the theory. The error arises from the fact that the optical system blurs the three pairs of line shifting into a single one, which leads to inaccurate measurements of and ambiguity in the estimation . The data used to create the previous plots is summarized in the following section.

D. Supplemental Data
Increasing V Decreasing V V(V DC) B (T) V(V DC) B (T) 0.00 0.008 12.34 -0.703 1.00 -0.050 12.00 -0.691 2.01 -0.112 11.00 -0.662 3.03 -0.173 9.99 -0.619 4.01 -0.233 9.03 -0.564 5.03 -0.295 7.99 -0.501 6.01 -0.354 7.02 -0.439 7.00 -0.413 6.00 -0.377 8.00 -0.473 5.00 -0.312 9.02 -0.532 4.00 -0.248 10.02 -0.585 3.00 -0.185 11.05 -0.634 2.01 -0.120 12.06 -0.676 1.02 -0.058 12.29 -0.678 0.00 0.008
Table 1. Magnetic field calibration measurements.

Cd Red Line: Parallel to B Cd Red Line: Perp. to B V (V DC) B (T) 2s (pm) V (V DC) B (T) 2s (pm) 4.00 -0.230 4.9 4.37 4.01 -0.231 5.3 4.31 5.01 -0.288 5.6 5.00 5.01 -0.288 7.1 5.78 6.01 -0.345 6.9 6.16 6.01 -0.345 8.7 7.08 7.01 -0.402 7.9 7.05 7.00 -0.401 10.4 8.47 8.00 -0.458 9.1 8.12 8.00 -0.458 12.2 9.93 9.01 -0.516 10.5 9.37 9.01 -0.516 13.0 10.58 10.01 -0.573 12.6 11.25 10.01 -0.573 14.2 11.56 11.00 -0.629 13.8 12.32 11.00 -0.629 15.2 12.37 12.05 -0.689 14.3 12.77 12.04 -0.688 16.1 13.11
Table 2. Spectral line shift measurements for Cd red line for light emitted parallel and perpendicular to .

Hg Green Line: Perp. to B V (V DC) B (T) 2s (pm) 5.05 -0.290 6.9 5.53 6.00 -0.344 8.1 6.49 7.01 -0.402 10.8 8.66 8.00 -0.458 11.6 9.30
Table 3. Spectral line shift measurements for Hg green line for light emitted perpendicular to and polarized perpendicular to .

Measurement V (mV) B (mT) 2s

Uncertainty 1 1 2.5

Table 4. Uncertainty in measurements.

V. Conclusions
A. Normal Zeeman Effect
Using the methods described above, we found and from the line splitting data for Cd light emitted parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field, respectively. These values are in strong agreement with the published value with a maximum percent error of 2.5%. The high accuracy in these measurements provide substantial evidence to the validity of the theory behind the normal Zeeman effect. The error, although small, can be accounted for in the imprecision of the indicator of the optical system. Additionally, the polarization states observed were consistent with what was expected. Light emitted parallel to field was found to be circularly polarized, which is in agreement with our assumption that light from does not propagate along the direction of the magnetic field. Light emitted perpendicular to the field was found to be dominantly linear with small amounts of circular polarization arising from instrumental effects. This is also in agreement with our expectations.

B. Anomalous Zeeman Effect

The results of the measurements of the Hg green line were also in strong agreement with the theory behind the anomalous Zeeman effect. Applying the theory for nonzero spin transitions, we predicted a theoretical value of . Our measurements of perpendicularly polarized light emitted perpendicular to magnetic field suggest an experimental value of , which gives a percent error of 13.8%. The closeness in these values confirms the theory presented in earlier sections of this paper. Error in this value arises from the inability of the optical system to detect all of the spectral lines. Different spectral

lines were blurred together to form one spectral line, which introduces an uncertainty in the estimation and results in inaccurate measurements of . The polarization states observed for Hg green line were identical to the states for the Cd red line. Light was circularly polarized when emitted parallel to and linearly polarized when emitted perpendicular to , which is consistent with what was predicted.

References
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Lorentz, Hendrik Antoon (1895), Versuch einer Theorie der electrischen und optischen Erscheinungen in bewegten Krpern, Leiden: E.J. Brill. Zeeman, P. (1897). "On the influence of Magnetism on the Nature of the Light emitted by a Substance". Phil. Mag. 43: 226. Gerlach, W.; Stern, O. (1922). "Das magnetische Moment des Silberatoms". Zeitschrift fr Physik 9: 353355. Heisenberg, W. (1924). ber eine Abnderung der formalin Regeln der Quantentheorie beim Problem der anomalen Zeeman-Effekte, Z. Phys. Volume 26, 291307. NIST Database, (2012).