{"term":{"id":"01158","title":"collisional broadening","longtitle":"IUPAC Gold Book - collisional broadening","doi":"10.1351\/goldbook.C01158","code":"C01158","status":"current","also defines":"<em>also defines<\/em>: foreign-gas broadening, resonance broadening, van der Waals broadening","mentioned":"<em>mentioned<\/em>: Stark broadening, Stark shift","synonym":"<em>synonyms<\/em>: Lorentz broadening, Holtsmark broadening","definitions":[{"id":1,"text":"Collisions of the emitting or absorbing particle with other particles cause collisional broadening as well as collisional shift of the spectral line. When collisions occur between unlike, neutral particles the term foreign-gas broadening is used, or van der Waals' broadening when both collision partners are neutral. When the colliding particles are of the same species, the term resonance broadening is employed. The term Lorentz broadening was previously used for neutral particle collision broadening, and Holtsmark broadening for cases of van der Waals' broadening when collisions took place with like particles. Both terms are now discouraged. Stark broadening refers to collisions with charged particles or particles with a strong permanent electrical dipole moment. Whereas a strong chaotic electrical field causes Stark broadening, an applied static electrical field induces a Stark shift.","contexts":[],"links":[{"term":"dipole moment","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/D01761"},{"term":"resonance","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/R05326"}],"sources":["Orange Book, 2nd ed., p. 122 (https:\/\/media.iupac.org\/publications\/analytical_compendium\/)","PAC, 1985, 57, 1453. 'Nomenclature, symbols, units and their usage in spectrochemical analysis - V: Radiation sources (Recommendations 1985)' on page 1463 (https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1351\/pac198557101453)"]}],"altoutputs":{"html":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/C01158\/html","xml":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/C01158\/xml","plain":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/C01158\/plain"},"citation":"Citation: 'collisional broadening' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351\/goldbook.C01158","license":"The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/) for individual terms.","collection":"If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .","disclaimer":"The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.","accessed":"2026-07-25T09:59:13+00:00"}}