Charge-dependent wavefunction collapse in ionised xenon

Abstract

The XUV spectrum of a laser-generated xenon plasma is found to be dominated by intense 4d to 4f transitions which appear both in emission and absorption for a range of ion stages. Term-dependent Hartree-Fock calculations were performed to enable the classification of the strongest of these and to study the behaviour of 4f electronic states in xenon over a number of ion stages. With increasing ionisation the 4f eigenfunction is seen to contract from (r)=17.9 au in Xe I to 0.78 au in Xe XVII. Evidence for the possible non-radiative decay of some of these states is also discussed.