Intense 1.315-μm atomic iodine emission from TlI/Xe discharges

Abstract

Results are presented showing that cw, rf discharge excitation of low-pressure gas mixtures of TlI and Xe produce very strong atomic iodine emission at 1.315 μm. An examination of previous electron beam excitation observations coupled with these results suggest that there exist two pumping processes for the excited atomic iodine. These are resonant energy transfer of Tl metastables to the excited iodine level and photolytic excitation/collisional TlI dissociative excitation from excited Xe metastable atoms. The overall results suggest a potential for this system as a cw, completely cyclic, self-contained atomic iodine laser at 1.315 μm.