skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Photodissociation of XeF2 (xenon difluoride) at 193 nm

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5233990

Interest in the spectroscopy of xenon difluoride (XeF{sub 2}) has been stimulated by the xenon fluoride (XeF) laser, which operates on the B-X transitions at 351 and 353 nm and the C-A transitions at 483 nm. The vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photolysis of XeF{sub 2} can be used either to obtain laser action on these transitions or to produce the several electronic states of XeF for kinetic studies. The XeF{sub 2} photodissociation laser has been pumped by UV sources, such as discharges initiated by exploding wires, UV radiation emitted by Xe{sub 2} excited by an electron beam, and sliding surface discharges. Modeling the performance of the XeF laser, requires rate coefficients for the kinetic processes that produce and remove the vibronic levels of the upper electronic state. The absorption coefficient of XeF{sub 2} was measured at 193, 206, and 253 nm. The measurements of XeF{sub 2} absorption of 193 and 253 nm appear to resolve the discrepancy in those absorption measurements. Adjusting the data of the two previous investigations to match our values at these two wavelengths brings the two sets of measured absorption coefficients into agreement in the overlapping wavelength interval, 203 to 210 nm. We determined experimentally that one molecule of XeF2 is dissociated for each photon absorbed at 193 nm.

Research Organization:
Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA (USA). Aerophysics Lab.
OSTI ID:
5233990
Report Number(s):
AD-A-211663/0/XAB; TR-0089(4930-04)-1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English