Experimental Study of Balmer-α Stark Broadening

Abstract

The Stark-broadened line profiles of Ha and Da have been measured in a wall stabilized argon arc at an electron density of ne = 1.4 X 10 16 cm -3 . Consistent with earlier experiments the obtained line profiles exhibit severe discrepancies to theoretical profiles based on the approximation of static ions and the line profiles were found to depend on the mass of the radiating atom. The measured half width of Da is about 15% smaller than the Ha-value. Recent calculations based on the "Model Microfield Method" greatly improve agreement with experiment.