Spectral line broadening by electron collisions in plasmas

Abstract

In this work we compute the broadening of the spectral line shape in a plasma. Precisely we focus our study on the broadening of the spectral line shape by the electrons collisions with the ions of the plasma. During the collision, the electron moves in the effective potential created by all the plasma components (ions and free electrons). Whereas the interaction between the colliding electron and the ion (assumed at the rest) is those of Deutsch. The latter takes into account the quantum effect at short distance. The corresponding broadening is computed for the case of the spectral line for Lyman-alpha of Li$^{+2}$ (Hydrogen-like of Lithium) and compared with the case where the interaction is that of Coulomb.