The effect of air impurities on pure neon luminescence

The luminescence decay curves of the 2p ₁ level of the NeI atom (the transition 3p??1/2]₀?3s??1/2] ₁ ^° , ?? = 585.2 nm) and the B ²?? _u ⁺ level of the N ₂ ⁺ molecule (the transition B ²?? _u ⁺ (?? = 0)?X ²?? _g ⁺ (??? = 0), ?? = 391.4 nm) in pure and air-containing neon are measured. The gas was excited by electron beam pulses (E _e = 150 keV, ?? = 5 ns, I _max = 500 A). It is shown that the molecular gases contained in air strongly quench the long-lived component of neon luminescence exciting due to dissociative recombination of Ne ₂ ⁺ molecular ions. The relative light yield at a wavelength of 585.2 nm as a function of the partial pressure of air in neon is determined to be ?? = (1+ 2??p)^?1, where p is the air pressure in Torr.