SPECTROSCOPIC AND KINETIC-STUDY OF XENON AFTER A MULTIPHONIC EXCITATION OF THE 5D-VERTICAL-BAR-5/2-VERTICAL-BAR-J=3 AND 5D-VERTICAL-BAR-7/2-VERTICAL-BAR-J=3 STATES

We present VUV luminescence and ionization studies of xenon after a three-photon excitation of the 5d\5/2\J=3 or 5d\7/2\J=3 state by a tunable and pulsed laser beam. Emission and excitation spectra, as well as ionization spectra have been obtained at a large range of pressures (from a few Torr to atmospheric pressure). The temporal analysis of the first (145 nm) and second (180 nm) continua of xenon showed the coexistence of two luminescence components. The first one, essentially the 145 nm emission, was very slow and included ionization and dissociative molecular recombination steps. The second was fast and correlated to the radiative and collisional disappearance of the 5d\5/2\J=3 state, initially produced by three-photon absorption. It was possible to make a numerical processing of the 180 nm emission by a sum of exponential terms. Various time constants could be deduced and a kinetic schema of the reactional processes has been proposed.