Title: Gaussian band shape
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - Gaussian band shape
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.G02597
Status: current

Definition
A band shape described by the Gaussian function: \[F\left(\nu - \nu _{0}\right) = \frac{a}{\sqrt{\pi }}\ \rm{e}^{-a^{2}\ (\nu - \nu _{0})^{2}}\] In this equation, \(a^{-1}\) is proportional to the width of the band, and \(\nu _{0}\) is the frequency of the band maximum.

Related Term
- Lorentzian band shape: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/L03628

Source
- PAC, 1996, 68, 2223. 'Glossary of terms used in photochemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1996)' on page 2244 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199668122223)

Related Reference
- PAC, 1990, 62, 2167. 'Glossary of atmospheric chemistry terms (Recommendations 1990)' on page 2192 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199062112167)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/G02597/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/G02597/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/G02597/xml

Citation: Citation: 'Gaussian band shape' 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.G02597
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Accessed: 2026-06-28T16:41:07+00:00