  We present an investigation of the Xe$_{2}$ excimer emission spectrum
observed in the near infrared range about 7800 cm$^{-1}$ in pure Xe gas and in
an Ar (90%) --Xe (10%) mixture and obtained by exciting the gas with energetic
electrons. The Franck--Condon simulation of the spectrum shape suggests that
emission stems from a bound--free molecular transition never studied before.
The states involved are assigned as the bound $(3)0_{u}^{+} $ state with $6p
[1/2]_{0}$ atomic limit and the dissociative $(1)0_{g}^{+}$ state with $6s
[3/2]_{1}$ limit. Comparison with the spectrum simulated by using theoretical
potentials shows that the dissociative one does not reproduce correctly the
spectrum features.
