Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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| the removal of energy or particles from a beam by the medium through which the beam propagates |
| the force that acts between bodies of like electric charge or magnetic polarity, tending to separate them |
| fine structure | |
| —n | |
| Compare hyperfine structure the splitting of a spectral line into two or more closely spaced components as a result of interaction between the spin and orbital angular momenta of the atomic electrons | |
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fine structure
in spectroscopy, the splitting of the main spectral lines of an atom into two or more components, each representing a slightly different wavelength. Fine structure is produced when an atom emits light in making the transition from one energy state to another. The split lines, which are called the fine structure of the main lines, arise from the interaction of the orbital motion of an electron with the quantum mechanical "spin" of that electron. An electron can be thought of as an electrically charged spinning top, and hence it behaves as a tiny bar magnet. The spinning electron interacts with the magnetic field produced by the electron's rotation about the atomic nucleus to generate the fine structure.
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