Generation of tunable coherent VUV radiation by four-wave sum-mixing in Ne

Abstract

Ne was used as nonlinear optical medium to produce continuously tunable coherent VUV radiation by a lower order nonlinear process; tunable coherent VUV radiation from 116.6 to 119.2 nm has been produced by nonresonant FWSM in Ne. The conversion efficiency was found to be of the same order as that in Ar, and we concluded that the higher efficiency was due to the very small dispersion of Ne. If a higher gas density is achieved, the conversion efficiency is expected to be improved by at least two orders of magnitude.