On a Fluorescence Spectrum of Oxygen

Abstract

The spectrum of the light from a mercury arc scattered by oxygen at atmospheric pressure and photographed with a quartz spectrograph shows, besides the Raman lines which have been reported by the writer in other notes[1], a series of doublets, extending from the ultra-violet limit of the spectrum on the plate down to the visible region. This appears as a fluorescence spectrum excited by the resonance line λ1849 of mercury, which is strongly absorbed in O2. As it seems that this fluorescence of oxygen had never been noticed before, probably because of its extreme weakness, exposures of 50 to 80 hours being needed to bring it out, and, as on the other hand, I have been able to determine its relationship with the known O2 bands, I will give a brief account of the results obtained.