Continuously tunable xenon laser at 1720 Å

We report the first continuously tunable vacuum ultraviolet laser emission in high-pressure xenon. By incorporating a dispersive element into the optical cavity, laser action was obtained over a 50-Å (1700-cm-1) range about a central wavelength of 1720 Å. A highly efficient pumping scheme allows the use of a 0.6-MeV electron accelerator delivering ≤ 10 J in a 3-nsec excitation pulse. © 1974 American Institute of Physics.