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Title: Generation of broadly tunable, narrow bandwidth, and intense coherent vacuum ultraviolet radiation in rare gases

Miscellaneous ·
OSTI ID:7062064

Generation of broadly tunable, narrow bandwidth, and intense coherent vacuum (VUV) radiation in rare gases was investigated using third-order sum-difference frequency mixing processes. VUV radiation in the region between 1180 A and 1240 A was efficiently generated by a resonance enhanced mixing process, [omega][sub VUV] = 2[omega][sub UV] - [omega][sub IR] with near and on the two-photon resonant intermediate states in rare gases, and by phase matching enhancement with gases of oppositely dispersive properties. The input tunable ultraviolet (UV) radiation at frequency [omega][sub UV] was produced by a tunable pulsed dye laser pumped by the second harmonic of a Nd:YAG laser. In one scheme, the dye laser radiation near 5440 A was doubled to 2720 A, and then mixed with the YAG fundamental at 1.06 microns to yield the UV radiation at 2167 A Kr4p(exp 6) yields 4p(exp 5)5p(5/2,2) two-photon resonance wavelength. In another scheme, the tunable UV radiation near 2150 A was obtained by two successive doubling of the dye laser radiation near 8600 A. The input infrared (IR) at frequency [omega][sub IR] was chosen from either the dye laser radiation or the YAG fundamental radiation. The generation system presented here was constructed with the capability of accurately monitoring the wavelength, linewidth, and intensity of generated VUV radiation, and was suitable for high resolution spectroscopic applications. Also of great practical interest, radiation of 1202.8 A (helium 1s(exp 2) + 2h(nu) yields 1s2s[sup S-1] transition), and 1215.6 A (hydrogen 1s + h(nu) yields 2p Lyman-alpha) was included in the generation region and studied by using different schemes. UV to VUV power conversion efficiencies as high as 2 x 10(exp -3) for resonant case, and 4 x 10(exp -4) for non-resonant case were achieved.

Research Organization:
Maryland Univ., College Park, MD (United States)
OSTI ID:
7062064
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Ph.D. Thesis
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English