Photons emitted in one region of a source are partly absorbed in their passage through
the plasma. Because of the fact that the absorption profile is of the same shape as
the emission profile, energy is selectively absorbed from the emission line, i.e.
the
absorption coefficient is a maximum at the centre of the line or central
wavelength. The actual line profile is changed as a result of the lowering of the maximum intensity
accompanied by a corresponding increase in apparent halfwidth.
Source:
Cite as:
IUPAC. Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book"). Compiled by
A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford (1997).
XML on-line corrected version: http://goldbook.iupac.org (2006-) created by M. Nic,
J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN 0-9678550-9-8.
https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.
