Absolute desorption yields of metastable atoms from the surface of solid rare gases induced by exciton creation

Abstract

Absolute yields of the metastable excited atoms desorbed from the surfaces of solid Ne and Ar by the creation of surface and bulk excitons have been measured using monochromated synchrotron radiation as a selective excitation source. We have obtained the absolute yields of (2.3 ± 0.7) × 10 −3, (1.4 ± 0.4) × 10 −3, and (7.8 ± 2.3) × 10 −4 atoms/photon at the excitation of S1, B1 and S′ exciton for Ne, respectively, and 1 × 10 −5 atoms/photon at S1 excitation for Ar. The probability for metastable atom desorption is found to be about 2 to 10% at the excitation of S1 exciton on the surface of solid Ne.