Chinese scientists have developed a high-performance laser operating in the vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) region. The narrow linewidth (estimated to be 0.71 pm) and high average power (146 mW) of this diode-pumped VUV laser make it attractive for applications in high-precision spectroscopy and semiconductor photolithography. Zhi Xu and co-workers used a three-stage system to generate 177 nm light. The first stage consists of a narrow-band Nd:YAG master oscillator power amplifier that produces 1,064 nm light. In the second stage, this light is frequency tripled to produce 355 nm nanosecond pulses by cascaded frequency conversion in two lithium triborate crystals. Finally, this light undergoes second-harmonic generation (SHG) in a KBe2BO3F2 crystal. The researchers realized a high SHG conversion efficiency of 2.8% by reducing the wave-vector mismatch between the fundamental and second-harmonic light through using a pump source with a narrow linewidth (2 pm). The scientists claim that this represents the highest power at 177.3 nm and the highest SHG conversion efficiency for 355 nm to 17.3 nm reported to date for the nanosecond regime.
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Pleasants, S. Narrow VUV pulses. Nature Photon 8, 422 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2014.127
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2014.127
