Temperature dependence of xenon excimer formations using two-photon absorption laser-induced fluorescence

Abstract

The temporal dependence of VUV emissions of the first continuum of xenon at around 150 nm are investigated for pressures ranging from 10 to 100 Torr and for temperatures ranging from 200 to 300 K, after briefly and selectively populating exclusively the resonant or the metastable atomic states of the 5p56s configuration. A kinetic and spectroscopic study was performed by analyzing the VUV post luminescence decay of xenon operating with such excitation conditions. Our results clearly show the temperature effects on the rate constants α31 and α32 of formation of excimers correlated respectively with the first resonant and the first metastable states by three-body collisions. The resulting reaction rates are obtained as a function of temperature T : α31 = 3.90 × 10−27 T−1.78 cm−6 s−1, α32 = 1.34 × 10−27 T−1.70 cm−6 s−1. For the whole pressure range, low temperatures favour the formation of xenon excimers and the efficiency of the three-body collisions in forming stabilized excimers increases with decreasing temperature.