Efficient vapor-phase vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) frequency conversion

Summary form only given. The techniques of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) may be employed in order to create an effective nonlinear response at a given wavelength which is equal in magnitude to the linear response at that wavelength. Physically, this allows frequency converters wherein 100% photon-to-photon conversion occurs in a single coherence length, i.e., in that distance which causes a /spl pi/ phase slip between the driving polarization and the generated electromagnetic wave. This paper reports the demonstration of a vapor-phase VUV frequency converter from 233 nm to 186 nm with an energy conversion efficiency exceeding 35%; the maximum generated signal energy and power were 250 /spl mu/J and 25 kW. (The net conversion efficiency to 186 nm, including all beams, is roughly 2%.) These wavelengths were chosen to demonstrate the utility of this type of frequency converter to generate wavelengths outside the transparency window of most crystalline media.