Excitation of vacuum ultraviolet emission from high-pressure xenon by relativistic electron beams

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Abstract
This letter reports an investigation of the vacuum ultraviolet emission from gaseous xenon excited with a 4‐nsec 10‐kA cm−2 electron beam. The observed decrease in the emission lifetime at 171.5 nm for high xenon number density is due to a quenching process intrinsic to xenon. Treatment of the quenching data yields a radiative lifetime of 130 ± 20 nsec for the excited xenon diatomic, and a quenching constant of 5.1 × 10−13 cm3 atom−1 sec−1. Thus, the theoretical threshold for laser action in excited diatomic xenon molecules is ∼ 26 times higher than had been previously anticipated from the 5‐nsec lifetime observed in liquid xenon.