The Siegbahn notation is used in
X-ray spectroscopy
X-ray spectroscopy is a general term for several Spectroscopy, spectroscopic techniques for characterization of materials by using x-ray radiation.
Characteristic X-ray spectroscopy
When an electron from the inner shell of an atom is excited b ...
to name the
spectral line
A spectral line is a weaker or stronger region in an otherwise uniform and continuous spectrum. It may result from emission (electromagnetic radiation), emission or absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorption of light in a narrow frequency ...
s that are characteristic to elements. It was introduced by
Manne Siegbahn.
The
characteristic lines in X-ray emission spectra correspond to
atomic electronic transitions where an electron jumps down to a vacancy in one of the inner shells of an atom. Such a hole in an inner shell may have been produced by bombardment with electrons in an
X-ray tube, by other particles as in
PIXE, by other X-rays in
X-ray fluorescence
X-ray fluorescence (XRF) is the emission of characteristic "secondary" (or fluorescent) X-rays from a material that has been excited by being bombarded with high-energy X-rays or gamma rays. The phenomenon is widely used for elemental analysis ...
or by
radioactive
Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is conside ...
decay of the atom's nucleus.
Although still widely used in spectroscopy, this notation is unsystematic and often confusing. For these reasons,
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC ) is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations working for the advancement of the chemical sciences, especially by developing nomenclature and terminology. It is ...
(IUPAC) recommends
another nomenclature.
History
The use of the letters K and L to denote X-rays originates in a 1911 paper by
Charles Glover Barkla
Charles Glover Barkla (7 June 1877 – 23 October 1944) was an English physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917 for his discovery of characteristic X-rays.
Life
Barkla was born in Widnes, England, to John Martin Barkla, a sec ...
, titled ''The Spectra of the Fluorescent Röntgen Radiations'' ("Röntgen radiation" is an
archaic name for "X-rays"). By 1913,
Henry Moseley had clearly differentiated two types of X-ray lines for each element, naming them α and β. In 1914, as part of his thesis, Ivar Malmer (
:sv:Ivar Malmer), a student of
Manne Siegbahn, discovered that the α and β lines were not single lines, but doublets. In 1916, Siegbahn published this result in the journal
Nature
Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...
, using what would come to be known as the Siegbahn notation.
Correspondence between the Siegbahn and IUPAC notations
The table below shows a few transitions and their initial and final levels.
See also
*
Characteristic X-ray
*
Moseley's law
Moseley's law is an empirical law concerning the characteristic X-rays emitted by atoms. The law was discovered and published by the English physicist Henry Moseley in 1913–1914. Until Moseley's work, "atomic number" was merely an element's plac ...
*
X-ray notation
References
Nomenclature system for X-ray spectroscopy(1991)
IUPAC
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC ) is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations working for the advancement of the chemical sciences, especially by developing nomenclature and terminology. It is ...
.
{{X-ray science
Spectroscopy
X-rays
Atomic physics
Quantum chemistry
Astronomical spectroscopy