A comparison of a second-order quantum mechanical and an all-order semi-classical electron broadening model

Abstract

It has been argued previously that line profiles created using a quantum model to second order in the radiator-perturbing electron interaction are reasonable over a wide region of plasma temperatures and densities for K shell α, β, and γ lines of many different radiator species. Most of the results shown in this paper show that this, in general, is true. However, the results also show that when an accurate treatment of the wings of a line profile is of importance or when a significant portion of the line profile extends beyond twice the plasma frequency from line center, one must take care in using a second-order electron broadening model.