The Zeeman effect in strong magnetic fields

Abstract

From the time of Zeeman’s discovery, the Zeeman effect has been the subject of a large amount of work; but hitherto experiments have been limited by the fields obtainable with an electro-magnet. It is known that the strongest field which can be obtained with the largest practicable electro-magnet is about 80,000 gauss. On account of the necessity in Zeeman effect experiments for uniformity of the field over a considerable volume, no experiments seem to have been performed in fields stronger than 40 or 50,000 gauss. In a recent paper a method has been described by which considerably stronger fields may be produced. The general principle is to obtain the field by passing a large current through a coil (without iron) for a very short time; so that the coil has no time to heat up. The current is produced by short-circuiting a specially constructed accumulator battery through the coil, and in this way it is possible to use a power of 1,000 k. w. A field of strength up to 500 k. g. may be obtained in a very small volume; but for the study of the Zeeman effect, it has only been found possible to use fields of strength up to 130,000 gauss, since we must have the field uniform over a reasonable volume in which to place our source of light.