Investigation of a laser-induced ablation plume of mercury as a nonlinear medium for Vacuum UltraViolet generation

Abstract

Abstract. The efficiency of nonlinear processes in metallic vapours is limited by usually low atomic densities. One way to circumvent this limitation, while keeping simplicity (that is avoiding the use of complex and user-unfriendly heat pipes), is to use a laser-induced ablation plume of the metal as a nonlinear medium. Here we present a study of a Hg plume used to amplify 125-nm radiation created by a resonant 4-wave-mixing process.