Interferential comparison of the red and other radiations emitted by a new cadmium lamp and the michelson lamp

Abstract

It is now generally recognised that future definitions of the units of length will probably be based on the length of a wave of visible light. At present the wave-length of the red radiation of cadmium serves as the basis of all measurements of the lengths of electro-magnetic waves which are perceptible by optical means, and provisional sanction has been given to measurements of length on the same basis, as an alternative to direct reference to the metre. Whether the cadmium red radiation provides the best reference standard for all measurements of length has not yet been definitely established. Two international committees, one representing spectroscopists and the other metrologists, have sanctioned standard specifications for cadmium lamps of the Michelson type from which the red radiation may be produced. The two specifications differ from one another in certain details, but both are subject to the same objections. These objections are directed partly against the high temperature at which it is necessary to run the lamp and partly against the high voltage required to excite the radiation. Therefore, such hyperfine structure and asymmetry as may be present in the red line of cadmium is likely to be masked in the Michelson lamp by a combination of two phenomena —the enhanced Doppler effect due to the high temperature of the radiating cadmium atoms, and the effect of the moderately high intensity of the electric field. Were this not so, it might be somewhat surprising that no definite evidence of fine structure or asymmetry had so far been observed in the red line from the Michelson lamp, notwithstanding the many careful examinations, with the aid of the most sensitive interferometers, to which this line has been subjected, in view of its importance as the reference standard for all other wave-lengths. Recently Nagaoka and Sugiura have recorded that they have observed slight evidences of structure in the red radiation when excited under special conditions in which great precautions were taken to ensure extreme sharpness of the line. It is believed, however, that no subsequent confirmation of this effect has yet been published.