QUASI-RESONANCE EXCITATION-ENERGY TRANSFER FROM AN EXCITED METASTABLEATOM TO A NOBLE-GAS CRYOCRYSTAL

An effect is discovered of the formation of the atomic (2p(5)3s) cente rs resulting from He gas discharge products being trapped in a growing neon cryocrystal. The unstable excited (2p(5)3s) 3P2 states in the ne on cryocrystal were detected by ESR. This effect is interpreted as a n ew phenomenon: quasi-resonance transfer of excitation energy from the metastable 2(3)S1 He atom trapped in a growing neon cryocrystal to the exciton energy band of the neon crystal followed by the exciton self- trapping into 2p(5)3p state and its subsequent decay in the (2p(5)3s) 3P2 state registered by ESR in our experiment. Temperature study show that the rate constant lambda of the process of excitation energy tran sfer from the 2(3)S1 He atom to the neon cryocrystal exciton band fair ly well follows the Arhenius law lambda = = lambda0 exp (-E/kT), an ac tivation energy E of the process turns out to be E = 0.0010(5) eV.