Pulsed laser optogalvanic spectroscopy of xenon in RF discharge

The nf series of xenon resulting from pulsed laser excitation (−600 nm) of the 5p⁵d configurations that exist in a 32 MHz RF discharge have been studied by an original variant of the laser optogalvanic (LOG) method. Four new series originating from 5d(1/2)1, 5d(3/2)2, 5d(7/2)4 and 5d(7/2)3 intermediate states were observed. Higher members (n ≥ 20) of the series show broadening attributable to field ionization.

A novel pulse treatment procedure, one based on simple analog circuits, has been used to normalize signals on a pulse-by-pulse basis and to force the effective duty cycle toward unity. This procedure yields smooth high-resolution spectra even at low pulse-repetition rates.