Stark Broadening of Two Neutral Helium Lines in Plasmas

Abstract

A reanalysis of the data reported in a previous paper has produced significant changes regarding the accuracy of electron densities measured from the widths of Stark-broadened neutral helium lines. This analysis indicates that, within the experimental errors of \ensuremath{\sim}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}15%, electron densities measured from the broadening of the neutral helium lines, $\ensuremath{\lambda}5016$ \AA{}and $\ensuremath{\lambda}3889$ \AA{}, agree with those determined from hydrogen ${\mathrm{H}}_{\ensuremath{\beta}}$. In addition to the previous measurements, shifts of $\ensuremath{\lambda}3889$ \AA{} are presented and a tentative identification of the forbidden line ($2^{1}S\ensuremath{-}3^{1}D$, $\ensuremath{\lambda}5042$ \AA{}) is made.