| ▲ Optical |
03/12/10: This was an old page I had about one of the experiments I did in the undergraduate physics lab at university. It's kind of sentimental, since it was the last time I was in the physics lab, which I had always enjoyed. The pictures show the spectra of a cadmium lamp taken through a red filter and a Fabry-Perot etalon, at three different field strengths, showing the "normal" Zeeman effect nicely.
I recently found a very nice video on YouTube which shows exactly what I saw in the experiment as the field is increased. It's from user morflink88 and is embedded below.
The text and photos below are from my old page.
This is the last experiment I will do in the 3rd year Physics lab. When an exited atom is placed in a magnetic field, the wavelength of a particular spectral line of its emitted radiation will be split into two components (usually, there's also the anomalous Zeeman effect). The first picture is basically a spectrum of a cadmium lamp with a red filter used to select one spectral line. The second and third pictures are with currents on 0.3A & 0.6A respectively in the electromagnet around the discharge lamp.
 0A |
 0.3A |
 0.6A |
| ▲ Optical |