Rare gas alkali ionic excimers

The rare gas alkali ionic excimers (RgA)$\sp+$& are investigated as possible VUV laser sources. The detection of emission from (XeRb)$\sp+$ at 165 nm using laser produced plasma soft x-ray excitation is reported. In addition the production of (XeCs)$\sp+$ with a radiative emission at 160 nm was observed using pulsed high energy electron beam excitation. A preliminary kinetic model for the formation and quenching processes of the ionic excimer (XeCs)$\sp+$ is presented. Fair agreement of the kinetic model with experiments is obtained. In order to reproduce the experimental results a relatively long radiative lifetime ($>$140 ns) and a small electron quenching rate ($<$3 $\times$ 10$\sp{-9}$ cm$\sp3$/s) have to be assumed. A quantum mechanical model based on previous single atom Hartree-Fock calculations is presented for calculating the potential energy curves for the rare gas alkali ionic molecules. Results are compared with previous calculations based on Rittner potentials