Abstract
The role played by 6p metastable Xe level in the kinetics of discharge pumped XeCl laser emission is investigated by performing time resolved and time integrated fluorescence studies of the Xe 6p–6s emissions produced in the discharge plasma at various pressures of chlorine donor compounds. The results analyzed according to a simple kinetic model suggest that 6p level is populated through a cascading mechanism involving various Xe levels which is enhanced by the presence of the halogen donor compound. The laser emission dependence is also investigated as a function of the halogen donor pressure. The observations lead to the conclusion that 6p states do not play a relevant role in the formation of XeCl* molecules and that other Xe excited states should be considered to account for the participation of the neutral channel in the XeCl* formation mechanism.