Stark broadening of visible neutral helium lines in a plasma

Side-on observations of the visible spectrum emitted by a helium plasma generated in a wall-stabilized arc are reported. Electron densities range from 0.2 to 1.3 × 10²²m^-3 and electron temperatures vary from 10,000 to 20,000 K. Most of the seventeen measured lines are “isolated” at the conditions of the experiment. Here, “isolated” refers to quantum levels which are non-degenerate even in the presence of perturbing fields. Electron densities derived from the Stark-widths of the isolated lines agree to within 15% of the values determined from Hβ and from the quasi-degenerate He(I) lines at 4471 and 4921 Å. Similar agreement is observed for the static-ion Stark broadening parameters. However, at the conditions of this experiment, the static-ion approximation is not valid near the center of some of the isolated lines. The observation of ion-dynamic effects in neutral isolated lines is reported here for the first time. In the isolated lines, the measured ion-dynamic effects are reasonably consistent with calculations based on an adiabatic “unified” theory for the ion perturbers. A simple parametric expression closely approximates the ion-dynamic contribution to the half-width of isolated lines. Hydrogenic (non-isolated) neutral helium lines exhibit a large discrepancy with theoretical profiles near the line center, where ion-dynamic effects are important.