Discharge physics, formation and quenching processes of XeF. Final technical report

Technical Report · Sun May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1977

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5168105· OSTI ID:5168105

Discharge physics and the formation and quenching processes in typical XeF laser mixtures are discussed. We have determined that the discharge physics is dominated by electron impact excitation and ionization of the rare gas metastables. The ionization of the metastables impacts the discharge stability directly while their excitation strongly affects the efficiency of producing XeF*. From our discharge experiments we have determined that Xe/sup +/(6p) states react with NF/sub 3/ to produce XeF* with a branching ratio of 0.7. The rate constant for this reaction is 4 x 10/sup -10/ cm/sup 3//sec. The formation and quenching processes have been determined by analyzing the dependence of (B/sup 2/..sigma../sup +//sub 1/2/ ..-->.. X/sup 3/..sigma../sup +//sub 1/2/) radiation on the partial pressures of Ar, Xe, and F/sub 2/. In the experiments the XeF* was produced by a high energy E-beam. We have determined the two and three body quenching rates by Ar to be 8 +- 4 x 10/sup -13/ cm/sup 3//sec and 1.5 +- 0.5 x 10/sup -32/ cm/sup 6//sec. Xe quenches XeF* with a three body rate of 3 +- 1.5 x 10/sup -31/ cm/sup 6//sec; the third body was mainly argon.

• Research Organization: Avco-Everett Research Lab., Inc., Everett, Mass. (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 5168105
• Report Number(s): UCRL-13797
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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Molecular & Chemical Physics-- Collision Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
COLLISIONS
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
ELECTRON COLLISIONS
ELECTRON-MOLECULE COLLISIONS
ENERGY LEVELS
EXCITED STATES
FLUORIDES
FLUORINE COMPOUNDS
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
IONIZATION
METASTABLE STATES
MOLECULE COLLISIONS
RARE GAS COMPOUNDS
STABILITY
XENON COMPOUNDS
XENON FLUORIDES