Collisional deactivation of Xe(5p56p) states in Xe and Ar

One-photon excitation in the afterglow of a pulsed discharge and two-photon excitation in a static cell have been used to generate the six Xe(5p56p) states in variable pressures of Xe. The decay times of the initially excited states and their products have been analyzed to obtain state-to-state rate constants at 300 K for collisional transfer among the Xe(5p56p) levels and the Xe(5p56s′) levels. The depolarization rate constants for the Xe(5p[5/2]2) and Xe(5p[3/2]2) states prepared by two-photon excitation were measured to be ∼6×10−10 cm3 molecule−1 s−1. The collisional deactivation rate constants of the two-photon prepared states, Xe(6p[1/2]0), Xe(6p[3/2]2), and Xe(6p[5/2]2), in Ar also are reported.