Tunable Coherent VUV Radiation Generated by Nonlinear Optical Frequency Conversion in Gases

Third- and fifth-order sum- and difference frequency conversion of pulsed dye laser radiation generates coherent tunable radiation in the vacuum ultraviolet at wavelengths X = 60 - 200 nm. The generated VUV light is of narrow spectral width (dE = 0.01 - 1 cm-1) and high intensity (0.8 - 104 W; 2.109 - 3.1013 pho-tons/pulse). Because of the high spectral brightness these VUV light sources are a useful tool for VUV spec-troscopy of atoms and molecules.