Absolute luminescence efficiency of ion bombarded solid argon

D. E. GROSJEAN; R. A. VIDAL; R. A. BARAGIOLA; W. L. BROWN

PHYSICAL REVIEW B - CONDENSED MATTER AND MATERIALS PHYSICS

American Physical Society

Año: 1997 vol. 56 p. 6975 - 6981

0163-1829

We have directly measured the absolute efficiency of the 9.8-eV M-band luminescence from the decay of Ar2* excimers in solid Ar bombarded by 1.5-MeV He1 and 10–50-keV H1 ions. About 54% of the electronic energy deposited by the projectiles is converted to 9.8-eV luminescence energy, or about 5.5 photons per 100-eV deposited. The efficiency is also found to be independent of ion and ion energy for those tested over a range of stopping cross sections from 6.5 to 400 eV/(1015 atoms/cm2). This work clearly establishes the M band as the major relaxation pathway for electronically deposited energy in solid Ar, a pathway that is an important source of radiation damage and sputtering and which can be affected by electron emission.