Zeeman Effect and

Electron Spin
 Zeeman Effect
• Splitting of atomic energy levels in the
presence of a magnetic field.
• We can interpret the electron orbiting the
nucleus as a circular loop of current I
enclosing an area A.
• The hydrogen atom then has a magnetic
(dipole) moment given by:
 Zeeman Effect

• We can write the magnitude of the magnetic

moment as

where L is the orbital angular momentum for a

particle in a circular orbit.
 Zeeman Effect
• From the Bohr Model, the angular momentum
is quantized according to

and so

• For n = 1 (ground state), we obtain the so-

called Bohr Magneton
 Zeeman Effect
• However, we have already mentioned that the
Bohr model is not correct.
• If we suppose that the magnetic field is in the
+z-direction, how will the magnetic field
interact with the magnetic moment?
• The interaction energy will be given by
 Zeeman Effect
• The z-component of the magnetic moment
from the Schrodinger formulation is

• The interaction energy in terms of the Bohr

magneton is now given by
 Zeeman Effect
• This interaction energy would add to the
energy levels of the hydrogen atom.
• Some of the energy degeneracies will be lifted.
• This is known as the “normal” Zeeman Effect.
Energy-Level Diagram
A hydrogen atom in the l = 2 state is placed in a
uniform external magnetic field B.
(a) What field magnitude is required to split the l
= 2 state into multiple levels with an energy
difference 2.71 x 10-5 eV?
(b)How many levels will there be?

0.468 T
5 states
 Stern-Gerlach Experiment

• The Stern-Gerlach experiment introduced a

splitting to an electron in the s-state (l = 0)
• Even surprising is that there are an even
number of splitting instead of the expected
odd.
 Electron Spin
• This “anomaly” can be explained by
considering that the electrons have their own
intrinsic Spin Angular Momentum.
• The spin angular momentum adds their
contributions to the total angular momentum.
 Electron Spin
• Experimentally, we find for electrons that the
z-component of the spin angular momentum is

• Comparing this with , we see that

in general,
 Electron Spin
• Also, the spin angular momentum is given in
terms of the spin quantum numbers s:

• s and ms are related via

• Since for an electron, then s = 1/2.

 Total Angular Momentum
• The orbital and spin angular momenta
combine to obtain the total angular momentum

where its magnitude would be given by

• j are the total angular momentum quantum

number
Total Angular Momentum of an Electron

• For electrons contributing to the spin, we then

have

• where the plus (+) sign corresponds to the

case in which Lz and Sz are parallel while the
minus (-) sign corresponds to when Lz and Sz
are antiparallel.
A hydrogen atom is in the l = 1 state. Compute
for the magnitude of the total angular
momentum for the cases when Lz is parallel to Sz
as well as when they are anti-parallel.
List the different possible combinations of l and j
for a hydrogen atom in the n = 2 level. Compute
for the magnitude of the orbital angular
momentum L and the total angular momentum J
respectively.