The greater the number of valence electrons, the more complex the spectrum. B. Atomic Line Widths Atomic line widths are affected by natural broadening due to the uncertainty effect doppler broadening pressure or collisional broadening Causes of broadening 1. Natural broadening a. Heisenberg uncertainty principle b. caused by finite lifetimes of transitions 2. Doppler Broadening a. Emission is more affected by a change in temperature while absorption and fluorescence are theoretically less affected.
Temperature also affects line broadening and the degree of ionization.