FORMATION AND ROTATIONAL-VIBRATIONAL RELAXATION OF DIATOMIC RARE-GAS EXCIMERS

The mechanism of collision-induced formation and vibrational-rotationa l relaxation of electronically excited rare gas molecules (excimers) i s examined theoretically. Excimers can be created by way of penetratio n through the barrier of the effective potential energy. According to this model, quasibound molecules are initially formed in highly excite d vibrational and rotational substates. Radiative decay of such excime rs is supposed to be closely related to the origin of the first emissi on continuum of rare gases. A quantum-mechanical problem of finding st ationary states of metastable molecules is examined. The solution of t he excimer Xe-2 is given. It is obtained with the help of special fac ilities, composed by the author, enabling to perform fast calculations with the precision of 120 binary digits. As is shown, the continuous energy spectrum of quasi-bound excimers exhibits some interesting feat ures: the spectrum consists of narrow resonance-like peculiarities tha t can be treated as quasi-discrete vibrational levels.