New methods for determining the polarization state of vacuum ultraviolet radiation

Two new methods are proposed for determining the polarization of vacuum ult raviolet radiation which permit the determination of an arbitrary polarizat ion mode for photons with energies of 10-100 eV. The essence of these metho ds is to create and detect a nonequilibrium population of the magnetic subl evels of atoms and molecules excited by the original VUV radiation and then determine the polarization of this radiation based on these measurements i n accordance with known formulas. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [ S1063-7842(99)02509-X].