Abstract
In a vacuum chamber pumped down to 1 × 10−8 Torr, Xe gas was leaked at a rate so that the Xe pressure inside the vacuum chamber was 1 × 10−6 Torr. An intense 1-ns CO2 laser was used to ionize the gas. The ejected electrons were detected with a retarding potential energy spectrometer. On the energy spectrum there are two peaks. One starts at a few electron volts and centers around 50 eV. The other starts at 230 and centers around 350 eV. Referring to the saturation intensity measured by Yergeau et al.1 the peak at 350 eV can be explained with the acceleration of electrons created in the ionization of Xe by the ponderomotive force. The low-energy peak at 50 eV was attributed to a similar acceleration process of electrons created in the ionization of some impurities. This speculation was confirmed by repeating the same experiment with Xe of higher purity.
© 1987 Optical Society of America
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