The Influence of Argon and of Hydrogen on the Spectra of Zinc Vapor

Abstract

An experiment to determine the influence of argon and hydrogen gases on the spectrum of zinc vapor is described. Low voltage arcs were struck in zinc, zinc-hydrogen, and zinc-argon mixtures under controllable conditions and the resulting spectra showed marked changes in the intensities of certain lines. The following lines were markedly quenched by both A and ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$: $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\lambda}6479$, 6214, 5894, 5772, 5182, 4924, 4911, 4298, 4292, 4113, 3965, 2801, 2770. The following lines, $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\lambda}6362$, 4810, 4722 and 4680 showed a small decrease in intensity but the quenching action on them was very small compared with that on other lines. The resonance line at 3075A, which is very intense in the pure zinc spectrum, is also very strong in the zinc-argon mixture. There is absolutely no trace of this line, however, in the zinc-hydrogen mixture. Special discussion of lines 4629, 3345, 3302 and 3282 is given. A simple explanation of the intensity changes in terms of the critical potentials of the two gases cannot be made except in the case of the 3075.8 line, since it is found that the monatomic, inert gas argon, with relatively high critical potentials produces the same type of quenching as molecular hydrogen, with this exception.