Suppression of fine-structure splitting and oscillator strength of sodium D-line in a Debye plasma
- Department of Physics, Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal 711 103 (India)
We investigate theoretically the influence of static plasma screening on relativistic spin-orbit interaction-induced fine-structure splitting of the D-line doublet arising from the transitions 3p{sub 1/2}–3s{sub 1/2} and 3p{sub 3/2}–3s{sub 1/2} of the valence electron of a sodium atom embedded in a model plasma environment. The many-electron atomic problem is formulated first as an effective one-electron problem in which the interaction between the optically active valence electron and the atomic ion core is represented by an accurate parametric model potential including core-polarization correction, and then the plasma effect on the atomic system is simulated by the Debye-screening model for the valence-core interaction. It is observed that the magnitude of spin-orbit energy shift reduces for both the upper component 3p{sub 3/2} and the lower component 3p{sub 1/2} with increasing plasma screening strength, thereby reducing the spin-orbit energy separation between these two components as the screening becomes stronger. As a consequence, the magnitude of fine-structure splitting between the D{sub 1} and D{sub 2} line energies of sodium drops significantly with stronger plasma screening. The optical (absorption) oscillator strength for 3s → 3p transition is seen to reduce with stronger screening and this leads to a screening-induced gradual suppression of the 3p → 3s spontaneous decay rate.
- OSTI ID:
- 22252169
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 1; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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