Spontaneous emission lifetime of the C → A band of the XeF molecule

The radiative lifetime of the blue
C \rightarrow A
transition of XeF has been measured to be 93 ± 5 ns by monitoring the exponentially decaying 460 nm emission following rapid electron impact dissociation of XeF
2
. By varying the XeF
2
partial pressure, the rate constant for quenching of XeF (
C
) by XeF
2
was determined to be
(1.8 \pm 0.5) \cdot 10^{-10}
cm
³
. s
^-1
. Finally, knowledge of the XeF B and C state lifetimes yields a revised value of 610 ± 60 cm
^-1
for the
B
to
C
state energy defect.