Plasma outside the visible

piareround

So I friend of mine got into this interesting discussion about different kinds of plasmas in particular the various colors and plasma parameters of various ions (*mainly magnitude of frequency and velocity equation). One interesting question we both had was about the possibility of a plasma whose primary spectrum included stuff outside the visible. Other than possible star examples, where the plasma has an very high temperature, we both could not think of a normal ion or laboratory situation where the plasma might emit in a spectrum outside visible.

So my question to you all was do you know any examples, laboratory-based or otherwise, of when a plasma's electromagnetic radiation lies outside the visible spectrum?

stevenb

I don't know much about this field myself, but I've heard of work done on ultra-cold plasma.

http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/...ett.101.195002

ZapperZ

Er... look at the Hydrogen spectrum that you could get out of a simple hydrogen gas discharge tube that we use in a typical undergraduate laboratory. There's a reason we ask the students to look at the Balmer series - it is the only series where the transition is in the visible range. The Lyman and Paschen series, for example, are not. But they are certainly there!

See http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu...s/hydspec.html

Zz.