Time behaviour of the scintillation light in mixtures of liquid argon and xenon

Abstract

We have measured the time evolution of the scintillation light in mixtures of liquid argon and xenon at different concentrations of xenon. The xenon shifts the scintillation light wavelength from 125 to 175 nm, even at concentration as low as 114 ppm. The time shape of the light has been found to be dependent on the xenon concentration. At a few percent xenon concentration the decay time is some tens nanosecond long. The light shape is understandable assuming that the primary excitation is transferred from the Ar to the Xe atoms via both radiative and non-radiative (collisional) processes.