GENERATION OF VACUUM-ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION FOR PRECISION LASER SPECTROSCOPY

We report on the generation of tunable nanosecond pulsed VUV radiation near 120 nm using difference-frequency mixing in H-2. Our scheme uses two dye lasers, one fixed at 606 nn and the other tunable in the red. These convenient wavelengths simplify the metrology needed for accura te VUV laser spectroscopy. Efficient VUV generation is attained with m odest Nd:YAG pump laser energies (approximately 160 mJ at 532 nm), mak ing the scheme attractive even when narrow bandwidths are not essentia l. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.