Voigt profile

The Voigt profile is a spectral line profile found in all branches of spectroscopy where the spectral line broadening mechanism consists of independent contributions from mechanisms producing both a Doppler profile and a Lorentzian profile. All normalized line profiles can be considered to be probability distributions. The Doppler profile is essentially a normal distribution and a Lorentzian profile is essentially a Cauchy distribution. The Voigt profile is the convolution of a Lorentzian profile and a Doppler profile:

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 V(f,\sigma,\gamma)=\int_{-\infty}^\infty D(f',m,\sigma)L(f-f',\gamma) df'

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where f is frequency from line center, D(f,σ) is the Doppler profile:

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 D(f,m,\sigma)\equiv\frac{e^{-f^2/2\sigma^2}}{\sigma \sqrt{2\pi}}

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and L(f,γ) is the Lorentzian profile:

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 L(f,\gamma)\equiv\frac{\gamma}{\pi(f^2-\gamma^2)}

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The defining integral can be evaluated as:

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 V(f,\sigma,\gamma)=\frac{\textrm{Re}[w(z)]}{\sigma\sqrt{2 \pi}}

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where Re[w(z)] is the real part of the complex error function of z and

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 z=\frac{f+i\gamma}{\sigma\sqrt{2}}

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Properties

The Voigt profile is of course normalized:

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 \int_{-\infty}^\infty V(f,\sigma,\gamma)df = 1

<math> The Lorentzian profile has no moments (other than the zeroth) and so the moment-generating function for the Cauchy distribution is not defined. It follows that the Voigt profile will not have a moment-generating functon either, but the characteristic function for the Cauchy distribution is well defined, as is the characteristic function for the normal distribution. The characteristic function for the (centered) Voigt profile will then be the product of the two:

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 \varphi_f(t,\sigma,\gamma) = E(e^{itf}) = e^{-\sigma^2t^2/2 - |\gamma t|}

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Voigt profile

Properties

See also