Optimization Conditions for Vacuum Ultraviolet Laser Source via Four-Wave Mixing*

Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light is uniquely able to probe physical and chemical processes. However, efficient generation of femtosecond pulses in this region has proven difficult. We present an optimization of the highly cascaded four-wave mixing process demonstrated by Couch, et al. [1]. Using numerical sulution of the unidirectional pulse propagation equation [2] knowledge of the exact, spatially-resolved dynamics is exploited to discover optimization conditions for efficient generation of intense, narrow bandwidth, ultrashort VUV laser pulses.

[1] David E. Couch, Daniel D. Hickstein, David G. Winters, Sterling J. Backus, Matthew S. Kirchner, Scott R. Domingue, Jessica J. Ramirez, Charles G. Durfee, Margaret M. Murnane, and Henry C. Kapteyn. Ultrafast 1 mhz vacuum-ultraviolet source via highly cascaded harmonic generation in negative-curvature hollow-core fibers. Optica, 7(7):832–837, Jul 2020.

[2] M. Kolesik, J. V. Moloney, and M. Mlejnek. Unidirectional optical pulse propagation equation. Phys. Rev. Lett., 89:283902, Dec 2002.