Decay of metastable xenon atoms Xe*(³P₂) in a xenon afterglow

Using the light absorption technique, the decay constant for the density of metastable xenon atoms Xe*(³P₂) has been measured in a pure xenon afterglow at pressures between 4*10^-2 and 8 Torr. At a gas temperature at 300K the diffusion coefficients D₀ for the Xe*(³P₂) metastable atoms in the parent gas has been found to be 19+or-2 cm² Torr s^-1, the relaxation cross section sigma of the Xe*(³P₂) atoms in a two-body collision with a xenon atom has been determined to be (7.4+or-1)*10^-20 cm² and the coefficient of a three-body collision of the Xe*(³P₂) atoms with two xenon atoms A₂ was found to be (7.6+or-1)*10^-32 cm⁶ atom^-2 s^-1. At pressures above 4 Torr the authors have observed a repopulation of the metastable level resulting from the electron-Xe₂* molecular ion recombination.