Secondary Radiation and Polarization of Resonance Radiation in Cadmium
Walter A. MacNair
Secondary radiation in cadmium vapor containing mercury as an impurity.---Attention is called to the points of difference between the conditions under which the two types of optically excited spectra of mercury vapor appear, namely resonance radiation and fluorescence. In the present experiments it is noted that when a bulb containing cadmium with a slight impurity of mercury is illuminated by light of 2288A wave-length the secondary radiation contains the mercury line 2536.7A in addition to the cadmium lines 2288A and 3261A provided the metal is distilling. As soon as the vapor is stagnant, however, only the cadmium 2288A line appears. The suggestion is made that the phenomenon is due to the presence in the distilling vapor of unstable HgCd molecules. In such a molecule the Cd atom may absorb the 2288A radiation and subsequently in the breakdown of the molecule may excite the Hg atom by a collision of the second kind.Polarization of the cadmium resonance, radiation in zero magnetic field.---The polarization of the cadmium resonance radiation (3261A) in zero magnetic field under certain conditions was found to be 35 percent. In order to explain this value by the kinetic theory, one must assign effective radii to the colliding atoms which are thirty times the radii effective in ordinary collisions.
Physical Review•May 1, 1927•5 citations