Evidence of defect phase formation in photoirradiated solid Xe: Steady-state kinetic study

Rare-gas solids are the model systems in physics and chemistry of solids, and a lot of information about dynamics of electronic excitations, in particular, about subthreshold inelastic radiation-induced atomic processes, has been documented in several books and reviews (see e.g. Ref. 1 and references therein). It is generally recognized that creation of electronic excitations in rare-gas solids results in self-destruction of crystal lattice [1]. The investigation of the physics and chemistry of radiation-induced elementary processes of conversion of electronic excitations into structural defects in rare-gas solids is of considerable interest from the point of view of material modification by electronic excitations [2]. Contrary to conventional chemical or material engineering, which is mostly applied high temperature and/or high-pressures processes for material synthesis/modification and quite often the catalysts to speed up the reaction, the radiation is the unique source of energy, which can initiate chemical reactions at any temperature, under any pressure, in any phase, without use of catalysts. The subthreshold inelastic elementary processes in rare-gas solids induced by irradiation by synchrotron radiation such as defect formation and desorption under excitation by particles with kinetic energies below the threshold of knock-on of atoms from the lattice sites were studied recently [1]. Our study revealed that these processes hav