Atomic spectra

When atoms in the gas phase by an electric discharge are excited they emit light. Each element produces a unique set of emitted wavelengths of different colours. The appearance of the resulting atomic spectra after splitting by a prism is a series of lines (a line spectrum) against a dark background.

Units

None

Notes

The atomic spectra images (simulated electrical gas discharge spectra) were produced using a modified version of discharge.java ( John Talbot, 1997) using data derived from a data collection published by NASA generated from reference 2.

Literature sources

Discharge.java: an applet written by John Talbot, 1997.
J. Reader J. and C.H. Corliss, CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 1980-1.

Explore the element of your choice through this periodic table.
1	2		3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1 H			2 He
3 Li	4 Be		5 B	6 C	7 N	8 O	9 F	10 Ne
11 Na	12 Mg		13 Al	14 Si	15 P	16 S	17 Cl	18 Ar
19 K	20 Ca		21 Sc	22 Ti	23 V	24 Cr	25 Mn	26 Fe	27 Co	28 Ni	29 Cu	30 Zn	31 Ga	32 Ge	33 As	34 Se	35 Br	36 Kr
37 Rb	38 Sr		39 Y	40 Zr	41 Nb	42 Mo	43 Tc	44 Ru	45 Rh	46 Pd	47 Ag	48 Cd	49 In	50 Sn	51 Sb	52 Te	53 I	54 Xe
55 Cs	56 Ba	*	71 Lu	72 Hf	73 Ta	74 W	75 Re	76 Os	77 Ir	78 Pt	79 Au	80 Hg	81 Tl	82 Pb	83 Bi	84 Po	85 At	86 Rn
87 Fr	88 Ra	**	103 Lr	104 Rf	105 Db	106 Sg	107 Bh	108 Hs	109 Mt	110 Ds	111 Rg	112 Cn	113 Nh	114 Fl	115 Mc	116 Lv	117 Ts	118 Og

*Lanthanoids	*	57 La	58 Ce	59 Pr	60 Nd	61 Pm	62 Sm	63 Eu	64 Gd	65 Tb	66 Dy	67 Ho	68 Er	69 Tm	70 Yb
**Actinoids	**	89 Ac	90 Th	91 Pa	92 U	93 Np	94 Pu	95 Am	96 Cm	97 Bk	98 Cf	99 Es	100 Fm	101 Md	102 No

Explore the element of your choice through this periodic table.

103

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105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

*Lanthanoids

**Actinoids

100

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102