Wavelengths, Intensities, and Zeeman Patterns in Ytterbium Spectra (Yb I, II, III, IV).

Abstract

In 1937, Meggers and Scribner published a paper on arc and spark spectra of ytterbium providing wavelengths, relative intensities, and spectrum numbers of 1668 spectral lines, including about 400 for Yb I, 1250 for Yb II, and 12 for Yb III. That work was handicapped by impure materials and conventional light sources. When pure ytterbium metal and new light sources became available in 1950, Meggers and Corliss decided to make a new description of ytterbium spectra. This new description includes data for 7300 spectral lines with wavelengths between 2000 Å and 12000 Å distributed as follows: 1800 belong to Yb I, 5100 to Yb II, 430 to Yb III, and 5 to Yb IV. The Zeeman effect on 1300 lines has been observed in magnetic field intensities ranging from 3.7 to 9.358 tesla (37000 to 93580 gauss). These data were obtained for chemical identifications and for structural analyses of the first two spectra of ytterbium.