De-excitation rates for excited xenon molecules

Abstract

The time decay of the density of excited xenon molecules (Xe2*) in the lowest bound diatomic states was monitored by observing the photons (1730 ± 100 Å) emitted in transitions to the repulsive ground state. Mutual ionizing collisions of the excited diatomic states are responsible for the initial decay at high excited-state density. The measured rate for this process is (3.5 ± 1.4) × 10−10 cm3 sec−1. At lower excited-state densities, the decay of Xe2* is controlled by spontaneous emission [(20 ± 8) × 106 sec−1], collisional deactivation [(3,3 ± 1.3) × 10−18 cm2], and electronic recombination.