Shock-Tube Study of Luminosity in Xenon

Abstract

Shock waves in xenon producing temperatures in the range 6000–11 000° K have been found to result in emission of a visible continuum after an induction period. An activation energy for continuum emission has been found to correspond to the energy of the metastable state of the xenon atom. This energy can only be associated with visible continuum emission if ground state and metastable state atoms interact to form stable diatomic molecules in an excited state which subsequently make dissociative transitions to a repulsive ground state.