Investigation of the Stark broadening of Balmer beta

Abstract

The Stark broadening of the Balmer line Hbeta was studied in a high-current wall-stabilised arc at electron densities between 1.75 and 14.4*1016 cm-3. The electron density was obtained by means of a two-wavelength Michelson interferometer. The reduced half-widths of Hbeta were compared with the theories of Griem et al. (1962), Vidal et al. (1973) and Seidel (1977). A slight increase in the reduced half-widths with increasing electron density was observed, just as predicted by theory. The absolute values, however, were smaller than the theoretical ones. There was good agreement with the experimental data of Bassler and Kock. The results of Wiese, Kelleher and Paquette (1972) differ from the data by 5-10% depending on the electron density.