Spectroscopic study of microwave discharge as a radiation source for transition probability measurements

The optical properties of a discharge in a mixture of helium (200 torr) and hydrogen (0.1 torr) were investigated. Line intensities were measured photoelectrically. Partial LTE is demonstrated by the linearity of plots of log(Iλ/gA) vs E. The temperatures T_He = 3300 and T_H = 3400 K are obtained from the slopes of the plots for He and H, respectively. Relative A-values for the hydrogen Balmer lines derived from the helium temperature agree with theoretical values within ±20 per cent. The uncertainties (≤ 7 per cent) estimated from the discrepancy between the temperatures are smaller than those (±10 per cent) due to errors in the observed line intensities.