The Fluorescence and Absorption of a Mixture of Mercury and Zinc Vapors

Abstract

It was observed that light from the aluminum spark of wave-length below 2000A excited vapor distilling from slightly amalgamated zinc, causing the emission of the first triplet of the sharp series of zinc, but excited neither the non-distilling vapor nor that distilling from pure zinc. The same kind of mercury-zinc mixture showed a continuous absorption from 2050 to $2{}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}S$ zinc atoms which may have been produced either through absorption by HgZn molecules and dissociation into excited zinc and normal mercury atoms or through collisions of the second kind between normal zinc atoms and excited HgZn molecules.