Abstract
THE visible spectrum of light emitted from a sample of polonium has been photographed using the night-sky spectrograph designed by McLennan and Ireton1. The activity of the sample was about 4 mC., and it was deposited on a platinum sheet, 3 mm. × 3 mm. This shape was chosen for another purpose and is not very suitable for a spectral investigation. The night-sky spectrograph contains a glass prism and, therefore, its application is restricted to the visible range. The aperture is f/l. The slit-width used in this investigation was 0.4 mm. The polonium sample was put in two positions with respect to the slit of the spectroscope: (1) the surface of the sample was in the plane of the slit parallel to the collimator axis so that light emitted from the surface could enter the slit; (2) the surface was about 1 mm. below the slit, so that only light emitted from the volume of ionized gas (air) above the surface could enter the slit.
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References
McLennan and Ireton, Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 129, 31 (1930).
Kayser, H., “Tabelle der Hauptlinien der Linienspektren aller Elemente” (Berlin, 1926).
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ORTNER, G., SALIM, S. Light Emission from Polonium. Nature 169, 1060–1061 (1952). https://doi.org/10.1038/1691060b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1691060b0
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