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Experiment No.: 4
Condensed Matter Physics Lab (PH – 324)
Introduction:
The Zeeman Effect is the splitting of a spectral line into several components in the presence of a
static magnetic field. This effect is named after the Nobel laureate Dutch physicist Pieter Zeeman (1865-
1943), who got Nobel for discovery of this effect. Zeeman observed in 1896 that sodium's spectral pair of
D-lines would split when placed in an intense magnetic field in a laboratory. Working under his mentor
Lorentz, Zeeman confirmed Lorentz's model for electron orbitals by constructing a model for his
observations in the context of electron angular momentum. In addition, Zeeman was able to demonstrate
applications of his method such as measuring the magnetic fields around the sun by observation of spectra
at different points on the surface. This model was later modified to fit a quantum mechanical model which
utilized a meta-state to describe the energy splitting found when placing an atom in a magnetic field.
The Zeeman Effect is very important in applications such as nuclear magnetic resonance
spectroscopy (NMR), electron spin resonance spectroscopy (ESR), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and
Mossbauer spectroscopy. It has also been utilized in Atomic absorption spectroscopy to improve its
accuracy.
Theory:
As mentioned above Zeeman effect is the breaking of degeneracy in atomic energy levels due to
the interaction between the magnetic moment of an atom and an external magnetic field. The strength of
this interaction in each energy state depends upon the total angular momentum of the atom, given by,
𝐽 =𝐿+𝑆
where 𝐿 and 𝑆 are the orbital and spin angular momenta, respectively, and were 𝐽 can take values
from 𝐿 − 𝑆 to 𝐿 + 𝑆 . The z-component of 𝐽 is labeled by the quantum number 𝑚𝐽 , and is restricted
to discrete values, in integer increments, in the range given by
− 𝐽 ≤ 𝑚𝐽 ≤ 𝐽
Thus, there are 2 𝐽 + 1 allowed orientations of 𝐽. In zero magnetic field there is no energetically
preferred orientation of 𝐽, and the energy states of the atom are said to be degenerate in 𝑚𝐽 , which means
they are all the same.
The presence of an external magnetic field defines a preferred axis, namely the direction of the
field. Each allowed orientation of 𝐽 with respect to this axis is associated with a different energy, thus
Figure 1: Normal Zeeman effect – only three lines of different frequencies are observed.
By contrast, the anomalous Zeeman effect refers to the splitting of spectral lines into more than
three components. The term `anomalous' was given because the phenomenon, which had been observed
since the late 1890s, was unexplained until the discovery of electron spin some thirty years later.
The energy of interaction between a magnetic moment 𝜇 and an applied magnetic field 𝐻 is given
by,
𝐸mag = 𝜇 . 𝐻
As customary, we choose the z-axis of our coordinate system to be along the direction of the applied
magnetic field 𝐻 which then gives,
𝐸mag = 𝜇𝑧 𝐻
or in terms of the z-component of the angular momentum
𝐸mag = 𝑔𝜇0 𝑚𝐽 𝐻 … … … … 1
where 𝑔 is the ratio of the magnetic moment of the whole atom to the fundamental constant called the
Bohr magneton, 𝜇0 . (The minus sign has disappeared since for electrons the direction of the magnetic
moment is opposite to the direction of the angular momentum.)
The 𝑔-factor for a free atom in a given state 2𝑆+1 𝐿𝐽 can be calculated according to,
𝐽 𝐽+1 −𝐿 𝐿+1 +𝑆 𝑆+1
𝑔 =1+ ………… 2
2𝐽 𝐽 + 1
As mentioned earlier, spectral emission lines which exhibit the normal Zeeman effect involve
transitions between energy states which have zero spin angular momentum, 𝑆 = 0. Thus, the orbital
angular momentum, 𝐿, and the total angular momentum are identical, and we have 𝑔 = 1 for both energy
states. The energy shift for a given value of 𝑚𝐽 , given by Equation (1), is the same in both the upper and
Fabry-Perot Interferometer:
The apparatus focuses on the ability to read small changes the energy of photons. This can be
achieved by employing a interferometer, in general a device which utilizes the interference effects of light
to measure small changes in the energy per photon of that light. In fact, interferometry is not limited to
merely photons, but can be achieved with any phase dependent quantum system such as a mass
interferometer which can theoretically measure incredibly small changes of acceleration in a system,
better than 10-5 m/s2. To observe the Zeeman effect in mercury, however, we concern ourselves primarily
with the 546.1 nm, 73 𝑆1 → 63 𝑃2 transitions. In this case we employ a Fabry-Perot interferometer to create
high-resolution interference patterns suitable for the measurement.
The Fabry-Perot interferometer is a special type of interferometer that utilizes two partially
reflective glass plates placed closely together with a layer of air in between. The glass plates may be coated
with a thin layer of silver in order to increase reflectivity between the two plates. These plates, when
placed exactly parallel to each other, create interference patterns by reflecting light multiple times within
the air cavity. Much care must be taken in aligning the plates properly to acquire useful data using a
kinematic mount to hold one of the plates. Ideally, when aligned, the interference pattern should have
little dependence on the angle at which one views the image.
The interference fringe patterns are recorded/saved by varying the magnetic field or more
specifically by varying the current through the electromagnets say in steps of 0.5 A.
These fringe patterns for various magnetic fields are then analyzed using a small MATLAB script
attached at the end of this report for the values of the following parameters:
o 𝛿𝑎𝑏 is the difference of the squares of the radial distance between the lines corresponding
to a fringe. 𝛿𝑎𝑏 = 𝑏 2 − 𝑎2
o 𝛿12 is the difference of the squares of the radial distance between the two main fringes.
𝛿12 = 22 − 12
Figure 4: Interference pattern showing the splitting of the main fringes into 3 distinct fringes for magnetic field
corresponding to 3.63 amperes of current flowing through the electromagnets.
Figure 5: Intensity profile of the interference pattern obtained above for magnetic field corresponding to 3.63
amperes of current flowing through the electromagnets.
Table 1: For calibration of the magnetic field produced by the electromagnets with current passing through them.
Obs. No. Current through the Electromagnets (A) Magnetic Field (Gauss)
1 0 570
2 0.23 1070
3 0.44 1580
4 0.6 1980
5 0.81 2540
6 1.06 3230
7 1.25 3790
8 1.42 4280
9 1.61 4830
10 1.9 5630
11 2.11 6200
12 2.32 6760
13 2.42 7010
14 2.72 7790
15 2.96 8390
16 3.15 8880
17 3.39 9440
18 3.55 9830
𝑦 = 2672𝑥 + 469.3
Figure 6: The graph displays the relation between the strength of the magnetic field and both 𝛿𝑎𝑏 and 𝛿𝑏𝑐 .
𝛅𝐚𝐛 𝛅𝐛𝐜
Magnetic Field (H) 𝚫𝛎𝐚𝐛 = 𝚫𝛎𝐛𝐜 =
S. # 𝛅𝐢𝐣 𝛅𝐚𝐛 𝛅𝐛𝐜 𝟐𝐝 𝛅𝐢𝐣 𝟐𝐝 𝛅𝐢𝐣
(Gauss)
(cm-1) (cm-1)
1 10169 59352 12922 13275 0.274 0.280
2 9821 74424 12027 12424 0.202 0.210
3 8993 125111 10952 11435 0.110 0.114
There is a good theoretical reason for this discrepancy involving the electronic spin in the system. In
the approximation given in the lab manual, spin of the electrons was not taken into account, leaving the
value S = 0. In reality, the strength of the spin magnetic dipole is of the same order of magnitude as the
angular momentum dipole. The net consideration of both spin and angular dipoles is called the Lande g-
factor, given by the equation,
𝐽 𝐽+1 −𝐿 𝐿+1 +𝑆 𝑆+1
𝑔𝐽 𝑛, 𝑙, 𝑠, 𝑗 = 1 +
2𝐽 𝐽 + 1
2+2−0 2+6−2 1
𝑔𝐽 7,0,1,1 − 𝑔𝐽 6,1,1,2 = 1 + − 1+ =
4 12 2
Thus, we end up with a factor of (1/2) for the difference in the splitting, giving a more acceptable
expected value of 2.335 × 10−5 cm−1 Gauss−1 . This value therefore is well within the bounds of error of
the experimental value.
Conclusions:
The anomalous Zeeman effect was observed and from the observations calculated value of the
Lande g-factor was found to be 1.354 × 10−4 cm−1 Gauss −1 .
References:
Supplied User manuals and reading material.
Wikipedia.org (http://en.wikipedia.org)
Fil = ['3.63';'3.50';'3.19';'2.90';'2.60';'2.28';'1.99'];
for aa = 1:length(Fil)
im = imread([Fil(aa,:),'.bmp']);
im = double(im);
data = im(480,:,2);
data = smooth(data,3);
figure;
plot(data); grid; title(['For Current = ',Fil(aa,:)]);
l1 = input('Enter the lower limit: ');
l2 = input('Enter the upper limit: ');
[A,B] = min(data(l1:l2));
fprintf(['Center is at: ',num2str(B+l1),'\n']);
end
Script 2:
Following script is a bit complex and can be used for the determination of the centre of the fringes more
accurately. It uses the Image Processing Toolbox of MATLAB and determines centre by fitting a circle on
the boundary of the fringe.
im=imread('<filename>');
gr=rgb2gray(im);
the=graythresh(gr);
bw=im2bw(gr,the);
% bw=-(bw-1);
bw=imfill(bw,'holes');
imshow(im);
hold on;
fprintf('Enter the coordinates of approx. center (determined by eye estimation)\n');
c=input('x-coordinate: ');
r=input('y-coordinate: ');
init_val=bw(r,c);
val=init_val;
j=c;i=r;
while(val==init_val)
i=i-1;
val=bw(i,j);
end
x1=j;
y1=i+1;
B=bwtraceboundary(bw,[y1,x1],'SE');
x=B(:,2);
y=B(:,1);
abc=[x,y,ones(length(x),1)]\-(x.^2+y.^2);
a=abc(1); b=abc(2); c=abc(3);
xc=-a/2;
yc=-b/2;
plot(xc,yc,'.r');
hold off;
fprintf('Center is: (%d,%d)\n',round(xc),round(yc));
10 | Z e e m a n E f f e c t , E x p t . – 4