Behavior of Zeeman corrected atomic fluorescence at high source currents

Abstract

Magnetic fields are generated by a pulsed air-cored solenoid, a device which allows the field-on-source and field-on-atomiser configurations to be readily compared. The fluorescence intensity is observed to increase with increasing field strength for both configurations at high lamp currents. However, the increase is markedly greater for the field-on-source arrangement. The effect is explained in terms of distortion of the source emission profile by the combined effects of Zeeman splitting and self-absorption. Zeeman absorption scanning is used to examine this process.