Triggering of relaxation cascades in pre-irradiated RGS by chemiluminescent reactions

Abstract

The relaxation processes in oxygen-containing Rare Gas Solids (RGS) pre-irradiated by a low energy electron beam are studied with the focus on the role of diffusion-controlled atom-atom recombination reaction in the relaxation cascades. The results of correlated in real time measurements of thermally stimulated phenomena are presented. The experiments were performed using activation spectroscopy methods–spectrally resolved thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) and exoelectron emission (TSEE). The suggested mechanism provides a long-range energy transfer and demonstrates the existence of a new relaxation channel–triggering of electronic relaxation processes by diffusion-controlled atom-atom recombination reaction followed by the emission of photons in the visible range which is converted due to the relaxation process into a vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) emission.