Measurement of the Rydberg constant using crossed-beam spectroscopy of hydrogen
A new value for the Rydberg constant has been determined by measuring the absolute wavelengths of the optically resolved 2S - 3P/sub 1/2/ and 2S - 3P/sub 3/2/ components of the Balmer H..cap alpha.. line of atomic hydrogen and deuterium in an atomic beam machine. The result is three-fold improvement in precision over recent other experiments and is as follows. RI = 109 737.31521 (11) cm/sup -1/ with the meter defined by the CCDM recommendation lambda (/sup 3/He - /sup 20/Ne: /sup 12/'I/sub 2/,i) = 632 991.399 pm. This measurement also yielded the following results. The fine-structure splittings of hydrogen and deuterium in the 3p state are 3249.8(8) and 3251.7(7) MHz, respectively. The isotope shifts 2S -3P/sub 1/2/ and 2S - 3P/sub 3/2/ transitions are 124 260.7(7) and 124 262.6(7) MHz, respectively. Molecular hydrogen (or deuterium) which was dissociated in an oven to produce atomic hydrogen (or deuterium) which was then excited to the metastable 2S state by electron bombardment. The metastables were quenched by being excited to the 3P state by a cw dye laser beam which crossed the atomic beam at right angle and thus eliminated the Doppler broadening. To measure absolute wavelength, a stable Fabry-Perot interferometer was used to determine the wavelength ratio of the well resolved H..-->.. fine-structure component and a /sup 3/He - /sup 22/Ne laser, used as a wavelength standard, locked to the 'B' hyperfine component of /sup 129/I/sub 2/.
- Research Organization:
- Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 5072650
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
HYDROGEN
SPECTROSCOPY
RYDBERG CONSTANT
ATOMS
BALMER LINES
COLLIDING BEAMS
DEUTERIUM
DISSOCIATION
ENERGY-LEVEL TRANSITIONS
EXCITATION
FABRY-PEROT INTERFEROMETER
FINE STRUCTURE
MOLECULES
SPECTRAL SHIFT
WAVELENGTHS
BEAMS
ELEMENTS
FUNDAMENTAL CONSTANTS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
INTERFEROMETERS
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
NONMETALS
NUCLEI
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
STABLE ISOTOPES
640305* - Atomic
Molecular & Chemical Physics- Atomic & Molecular Theory- (-1987)
640302 - Atomic
Molecular & Chemical Physics- Atomic & Molecular Properties & Theory