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physical phenomena > process > physical process > optical process > radiation modification > line broadening

line broadening comparison table

Subject	has effect	is measured by	has definition	is proportional to	has example	has use	has cause
Doppler broadening	small displacements of radiation absorbed or emitted by atoms toward longer and shorter wavelengths result in broadening of the lines		Line broadening caused by the thermal, turbulent, or mass motions of atoms along the line of sight.				thermal, turbulent, or mass motions of atoms along the line of sight
natural line broadening			Line broadening resulting from the fact that excited levels have certain mean lives, and these mean lives, by virtue of the uncertainty principle, imply a spread in the energy values.
Paschen-Back effect			An effect on spectral lines obtained when the light source is located in a strong magnetic field, so that the magnetic splitting becomes greater than the multiplet splitting.
pressure broadening			Line broadening caused by pressure.		white dwarfs have very broad absorption lines		pressure which in turn is caused by the surface gravity of the star
Stark effect	splitting of a spectral line		Line broadening due to the influence of electric fields.	the ion and electron density in a plasma		indicator of atmospheric pressure in a stellar atmosphere and hence of the star's luminosity	the influence of an electric field on a radiating atom or ion
Zeeman effect	splitting of a spectral line into a multiplet of lines with distinct polarization characteristics.	measuring the difference between right-hand and left-hand polarization across a spectral line.	Line broadening due to the influence of magnetic fields.				the influence of an magnetic field on a radiating atom or ion.

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