Self‐trapping and hot luminescence of excitons in rare gas solids

The mechanism of intrinsic luminescence of excitons in crystalline Xe and Ar is treated. The band at 9.7 eV in Ar is shown to be non‐elementary. The height of the exciton self‐trapping barrier in Ar is determined experimentally (ϵ = 3.5 meV). An experimental and theoretical study of hot luminescence of self‐trapping excitons in rare gas crystals is carried out. The contribution of hot luminescence to the total light sum increases in the series XeArNe.