Inert gas excimer radiation from a free jet expansion

A molecular beam source incorporating a dc discharge is used to study the emission spectrum of helium excimers near 600 A and of argon excimers near 1070 A. It is shown that under certain conditions the strength of the excimer radiation approaches that due to the helium resonance lines. The new source is expected to be useful for studying other excimers in the vacuum ultraviolet region of the spectrum.