Formation and decay kinetics of the 2p levels of neon, argon, krypton, and xenon produced by electron-beam pulses

Observations of the kinetics of light emission show that the 2p levels of the rare gases Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe are produced by three different processes: (1) direct excitation by the electron beam; (2) degradation of higher energy levels; (3) ion recombination. The time dependences of the visible and near-IR emission spectra observed from these gases reveal that process 3 produces a significantly different distribution of 2p levels than does the combination of processes 1 and 2.