Series of emission and absorption bands in the mercury spectrum

Abstract

In a recent paper some remarkable phenomena exhibited by the mercury band spectrum in emission were described. In particular it was shown that the band spectrum was intimately related to the resonance line 1 1 S 0 — 1 3 P 1 (2537) and the “forbidden” lines 1 1 S 0 — 1 3 P 0 (2656) and 1 1 S 0 — 1 3 P 2 (2270) which appear strongly with it, in spite of the apparent violation of the inner quantum number rule which this implies. A system of emission bands was described, extending from λ 3055 to λ 2697, with the spacing diminishing from 21 A to about 6 A. The starting point of the present investigation was to look for these bands in absorption, so as to determine whether they had for their lower energy level one associated with the normal state of the molecule.