Possibility of construction of collisional VUV lasers utilizing alkali metal vapors

Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) laser systems for the 60–80 nm range are proposed on the basis of utilization of collisional energy transfer from metastable levels of rare gases to alkali metal atoms and excitation of the latter to long-lived quartet autoionizing states. Either the atoms are transferred from these states to upper active levels by a pulse of strong laser radiation or stimulated Raman scattering is accompanied by the emission of VUV photons.