Resonance-Enhanced Photon Excitation Spectroscopy of the Even-Parity Autoionizing Rydberg States of Xe

Xenon atoms were produced in their metastable states 5p(5)6s[3/2](2) and 5p(5)6s'[1/2](0) in a pulsed DC discharge in a beam, and subsequently excited to the even-parity autoionizing Rydberg states 5p(5)np'[3/2](1),[1/2](1), and 5p(5)nf'[5/2](3) using single photon excitation. The excitation spectra of the even-parity autoionizing resonance series from the metastable Xe-129 were obtained by recording the autoionized Xe+ with time-of-flight ion detection in the photon energy range of 28000-42000 cm(-1). A wealth of autoionizing resonances were newly observed, from which more precise and systematic spectroscopic data of the level energies and quantum defects were derived.