Generation of narrowband tunable VUV radiation at the Lyman-α wavelength

Abstract

Tunable narrowband VUV radiation has been generated at the Lyman-α wavelength λ = 1216 Å by frequency tripling in krypton the frequency-doubled output of a powerful dye laser system which is excited with the second harmonic of a Nd-YAG laser. 5 ns long UV dye laser pulses (λ = 3646Å) of 1.8 MW peak power yielded VUV light pulses of 2.2 W (5.4 × 199 photons/pulse). The bandwidth of the dye laser radiation could be narrowed to 8.7 × 10-3cm-1 (4.6 × 10-3 Å). The expected bandwidth of the VUV is less than 5.2 × 10-2cm-1 (7 × 10-4 Å). The tunable VUV radiation is used for the recording of the absorption spectra of the Lyman-α resonance transitions in atomic hydrogen and deuterium with doppler-limited resolution.