Joey Piriano

PHYS 506
3/1/2022
Zeeman Effect in Mercury
Abstract
In this lab we utilize an electromagnet to induce the Zeeman effect in a tube of mercury,

in order to measure the g values in the splitting energy levels of both green and blue lines. In

order to do so we specifically observe the electron transition from the upper and lower state of

each color; 73S1 to 63P1 for blue and for green. We measured 1.27±.317 for our green line g

factor and 3.25±.715 for our blue line g factor. This lab had a substantial amount of human error

in it as most measurements were done by hand from a CRT television.

Introduction

First thing is first, it’s important to not only understand what the Zeeman effect actually

is, but also how it pertains relevancy to our current case. Originally, The Zeeman effect was

discovered in 1896 by Pieter Zeeman when he noticed splitting being caused by a magnetic

field/. This effect describes the splitting of spectral lines under the influence of an external

electric field. However, it wasn’t until 1925 until a theory could fully explain the phenomenon of

more energy levels for multi-electron system. In our experiment we will use the splitting that

Zeeman originally observed to measure the g values of the Mercury electron transitions for green

and blue light.

Theoretical Explanation

Unfortunately to really understand the Zeeman effect it is extremely important to have a good

understanding of quantum numbers and how they relate to the properties of subatomic particles.

When there is no magnetic field present you can model the behavior of an electron through the
 Joey Piriano
PHYS 506
3/1/2022
use of only two of these letters. The first letter we need to get a feel for is S, which represents the

direction the particle is most likely to go in. The other portion we need is our L value, this

represents the total orbital angular momentum of the particle. However, in the presence of a

magnetic field you will need to take the sum of these which will give you the total angular

momentum or J. Our J value can range from +J to -J, the energy difference between these two

states can be written as Equation 1.

EQ 1

In this equation B is our magnetic field, while our M value can be represented by -J all the way

to +J, and our g value come from equation 2.

EQ 2

The next step is to take all the equations and variables we just figured out and manipulate them

to fit our current experiment in order to relate them back to green and blue lines. In order to do

this, we need to look back at the notation for the electron state of each color and discern what

each of the numbers and letters actually represent. The first number tells us the electron valnce

level, the superscript of this is related to our S value by 2S+1, the letter following represents our

orbital momentum value L, while the subscript tells us the possible values of m. These

transitions of blue and green light can be represented by energy diagrams, shown as figure one

and two, where the splitting becomes more apparent.

 Joey Piriano
PHYS 506
3/1/2022
Figure 1: Green line electron transitions

Figure 2: Blue Line electron transitions

Now we need to express these transitions in terms of either EB for our blue lines or EG for green

and ΔEU or ΔEL. ΔEU and ΔEL will represent the energy differences between the upper and lower

levels. These equations can be seen below sorted by Δm value, in tables one and two.

Table 1: Energy differences for green line transitions

 Joey Piriano
PHYS 506
3/1/2022

Table 2: Energy Differences for Blue line Transitions

To be able to use all of this information to solve for the g factors we need to relate it all back to

the change in frequency. First, we need to define Δf using Equation 3

2d = nλ = nc/f, n=2df/c so, Δn=(2d/c) Δf

Δf=c/2d (EQ3)

We can now use this as relation to equation 1 with ΔE= Δfh to calculate for different g factors. In

order to do this, we need be able to express ΔE in terms of of EU and EL. This is shown in

Equation 4 for the green line and Equation 5 for the blue line.

2gLμbB = 1/2 Δfh (EQ4)

gLμbB + gUμbB = 1⁄2 Δfh (EQ5)

 Joey Piriano
PHYS 506
3/1/2022
Where ½ is simply due to the lines measured lines being equidistant apart resulting in half of the

original Δf.

Experiment

To correctly carry out this experiment we used a Mercury tube and power supply, a large

electromagnet, a prism spectrograph, fixed Fabry-Perot etalon, a polaroid sheet, Hall probe to

measure electric field and finally a camera connected to a TV that displayed the splitting. Once

all of these are connected similar to the picture shown below, the experiment is ready to start.

The first steps in starting this experiment were turning on the power supply for both the mercury

tube and the electromagnet and then making sure the Hall probe was ready to record the

magnetic field. Then make sure the polarizer is in place and the corresponding images are

showing up on the monitor. From this point on the setup works fairly simply. The light is

generated by the Mercury tube, which is located between two poles of the electromagnet, this

light then passes through a very small slip. Once through the slip, the light is reflected by using a

focusing mirror where all the light rays are collimated once reflected. This light then travels
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PHYS 506
3/1/2022
through the Fabry-Perot Interferometer. The collimated rays travel to the first diffraction grating

where light of the desired wavelength is then diffracted back to the focusing mirror. The light

reflects off the focusing mirror and the incoming rays are collimated causing them to converge

an image where the camera is located. Once the rays reflect off the last mirror towards the

camera an image is formed which can be observed on the TV.

Error Analysis

Our final green line value was measured to be 1.27 with an uncertainty of 20% while our

final blue line gg value was measured to be 3.25 with an uncertainty of 22%. The reasons for

such a high uncertainty come from a number of sources. The first of which was the varying

voltage of the electromagnet causing an unsteady picture on the CRT, which brings us to the next

source of error, the television. Due the televisions age it has shadows burned into from previous

experiments and in general has a very unstable staticky picture. The last source of error come

from human error with an emphasis on measurement, but overall, we still ended up with decent

values.

Conclusion

In this lab we were able to successfully calculate the g factors for both blue and green

spectral lines by observing the Zeeman effect in Mercury that was caused by an electromagnet.

These g factors were Through this process we were able to observe basic line splitting as well as

interesting polar effects. 1.27±.317 for our green line g factor and 3.25±.715 for our blue line g

factor.
Joey Piriano
PHYS 506
3/1/2022