Observation of Relaxation Maxima of the Population of Metastable Atomic States by the Method of Rozhdestvenskii Hooks under Pulsed Periodic discharge in Xenon

摘要

The method of Rozhdestvenskii hooks was used to study the time variation of concentrations of metastable xenon atoms under conditions of a pulsed periodic discharge in xenon. The experiments showed for the first time the relaxation peaks for the population of metastable and quasi-metastable states of xenon atoms under conditions of discharge contraction. The peaks corresponded to the discharge gap breakdown and the discharge plasma decay stages. The formation of the recombination peak for the population of metastable states of xenon atoms under the conditions being studied is shown to be caused predominantly by the conversion of atomic xenon atoms to molecular ions in triple collisions involving neutral atoms. The process is accompanied by the production of considerable concentrations (10~(13) cm~(-3)) of metasta