Liquid Oxygen under High Magnetic Field

Abstract

A systematic study of liquid oxygen under a high magnetic field is described. It is found that the experimental results of the field-induced transparency are not explained by the simple mean field method even though the magneto-volume effect, which enhances the field-induced transparency, is taken into account. The transparency effect is quantitavely explained by the spin-pair model where two spins of the O₂ molecule pair couple with each other. The conclusion seems to be probable because the optical transition comes from one photon absorption by two ground state (³Σ_g⁻) molecules where the pair interaction may play an important role.