The rare gas alkali ionic excimers (RgA)\sp+& are investigated as possible VUV laser sources. The detection of emission from (XeRb)\sp+ at 165 nm using laser produced plasma soft x-ray excitation is reported. In addition the production of (XeCs)\sp+ with a radiative emission at 160 nm was observed using pulsed high energy electron beam excitation. A preliminary kinetic model for the formation and quenching processes of the ionic excimer (XeCs)\sp+ is presented. Fair agreement of the kinetic model with experiments is obtained. In order to reproduce the experimental results a relatively long radiative lifetime ($>140ns)andasmallelectronquenchingrate(<$3 × 10\sp−9 cm\sp3/s) have to be assumed. A quantum mechanical model based on previous single atom Hartree-Fock calculations is presented for calculating the potential energy curves for the rare gas alkali ionic molecules. Results are compared with previous calculations based on Rittner potentials.