  White dwarf stars are traditionally found to have surface compositions made
primarily of hydrogen or helium. However, a new family has recently been
uncovered, the so-called Hot DQ white dwarfs, which have surface compositions
dominated by carbon and oxygen with little or no trace of hydrogen and helium
(Dufour et al. 2007, 2008, 2010). Deriving precise atmospheric parameters for
these objects (such as the effective temperature and the surface gravity)
requires detailed modeling of spectral line profiles. Stark broadening
parameters are of crucial importance in that context. We present preliminary
results from our new generation of model atmosphere including the latest Stark
broadening calculations for CII lines and discuss the implications as well as
future work that remains to be done.
