Magnetic Field Measurements in Plasmas: Beyond the Traditional Zeeman Spectroscopy

We discuss a new approach to measure magnetic fields in situations where the magnetic-field properties and/or the plasma regime make the traditional Zeeman spectroscopy inapplicable. The approach is particularly useful when the field direction and/or magnitude vary significantly in the region viewed or during the diagnostic system's integration time, and hence no Zeeman splitting can be observed. Similar difficulty may also occur for high-energy-density conditions, where the Zeeman pattern is often completely smeared, regardless of the field distribution, due to the dominant contributions of the Stark and Doppler broadenings to the spectral-line shapes. In the new approach, the magnetic field is inferred from the comparison of the line-shapes of different fine-structure components of the same multiplet, which practically have the same Stark and Doppler broadenings, but different magnetic-field-induced contributions. Limitations of the new method are discussed.