Collisional energy transfer in gaseous xenon with vacuum ultraviolet laser excitation of the 5dlsqb;1/2rsqb;1atomic level

摘要

Timehyphen;resolved analysis of the luminescence decay of gaseous xenon has been carried out with onehyphen;photon excitation of the 5dlsqb;1/2rsqb;1atomic level for the first time. The onehyphen;photon selective excitation is realized with a coherent vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light source generated via nonlinear processes in mercury vapor. Dominant threehyphen;body recombination of Xe(5dlsqb;1/2rsqb;1) atoms with a rate constant of 3.2(0.3)times;10minus;31cm6thinsp;sminus;1has been found. Resonance radiation from this atomic level undergoes a selfhyphen;trapping, which results in its dominant fluorescence decay in the IR witht=4.9(0.7) mgr;s. Branching into two relaxation channels is found at low xenon pressure (5ndash;100 mbar)mdash;both avoiding the 6slsqb;3/2rsqb;1first resonance atomic level and terminating by VUV emission. At higher pressure, the relaxation kinetics changes displaying after 500 mbar the well known effect of lsquo;lsquo;atomic reservoirrsquo;rsquo; and radiation from theA1u/0minus;umolecular state with lifetime of 101(4) ns. The scheme of energy relaxation involving the 5dlsqb;1/2rsqb;1atomic level is discussed. copy;1994 American Institute of Physics.