We report time-resolved, quadrupole mass-selected measurements of neutral and ion emission from single crystal sodium nitrate exposed to ns pulse excimer laser radiation at 157 nm (F-2 excimer, 7.9 eV photons), 193 nm (ArF excimer, 6.4 eV photons) and 248 nm (KrF excimer, 5.0 eV photons). Neutral emissions, including NO, O-2, N-2, and Na are observed at all three wavelengths. At 193 nm, intense atomic N and O emissions are also observed, possibly due to a 1 + 1 excitation involving the pi* <-- pi transition in the nitrate ion (centered at 6 eV) followed by excitation to a higher excited state. This transition is not efficiently excited at the other two wavelengths. At 248 nm, much of the emission is attributed to thermally assisted, dissociative electron/hole attachment. Although 157 nm photons do not excite the pi* <-- pi transition efficiently, the resulting NO emission is found to be quite intense: on a per unit energy (or per photon) basis, 157 nm photons are much more efficient in decomposing nitrate anions than 193 run photons. Intense ion emission (principally Na+ and NO+) is observed at 193 and 157 nm, with weaker Na+ emission at 248 nm. The ion intensities show high-order fluence dependence, consistent with photoelectronic emission involving sequential photon absorption as described earlier for 248 nm irradiation [J. Appl. Phys. (80) (1996) 6452]. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V All rights reserved.