Free-exciton luminescence of solid xenon and solid krypton

Abstract

With time and spectrally resolved experiments, the luminescence of solid Xe and solid Kr was re-investigated. It is the first time that obtained time and spectrally resolved results are consistent with one another. For solid Xe, the luminescence of free excitons turns out to be extremely strong, exceeding the emission of self-trapped excitons by a factor of 50 (peak-to-peak ratio). For the first time, an experimental determination of self-trapping rates without any assumption concerning radiative lifetimes was possible. The numerical values in the low 108 s−1 range are about 4 orders of magnitude smaller than originally estimated. The present values are in good agreement with theoretical predictions.