Fine Structure of the Luminescence of Solid Neon and Its Relation to Exciton Trapping and Desorption Induced by Excitonic Excitation

Abstract

Abstract The luminescence of Ne* centers in solid Ne is investigated. The samples are excited with synchrotron radiation in the excitonic range. By an appropriate selection of the excitation energy and by time correlated measurement of the emission spectra, overlapping luminescence bands are separated and assigned to Ne* centers in different electronic states ( 1 P 1 , 3 P 1 , 3 P 2 ) and different environments in the bulk and at the surface of the solid. Lifetime measurements and excitation spectra of spectrally selected luminescence bands support the assignments, Electronic relaxation from n ≧ 2 free excitons to the n = 1 state is found to be less effective than exciton trapping into Ne* centers. Resonance fluorescence of free Ne* atoms indicates a close connection between exciton trapping and desorption.