Characterization of afterglow kinetics at atmospheric pressures by emission spectroscopy: II. Reactions of neon ions with Xe

International audienceThe afterglow of a 1 kA, 10 ns duration discharge in neon at 1.1-4.0 bar pressure containing up to 30 mbar of reactant admixture Xe was studied by time-resolved emission spectroscopy. Destruction frequencies of neon ions have been determined experimentally both from the selectively excited fluorescence of N2+ and from the radiation of excited xenon atoms. These data confirm the existence of a termolecular charge-transfer reaction of Ne2+ with Xe, the corresponding rate coefficient being (2.6+-0.3)10-30 cm6s-1. Also the fact that vibrationally excited Ne2+ ions play an important role was confirmed. A persistent source of ionization at late afterglow times has been studied in some detail and was interpreted in terms of collisions between xenon atoms in their first excited states 3P2 and 3P1. The decay processes of these atoms were identified as partially trapped resonance radiation and three-body conversion to Xe2 dimer