High-efficiency four-wave sum and difference mixing in Hg vapor

Abstract

Mercury vapor has been used as a nonlinear frequency upconverting medium to generate peak powers of 5 kW at 1251 A in a bandwidth of 0.04 cm(-1) with a 10-Hz tunable system. The energy conversion efficiency is 0.3%. Parametric oscillation at the Hg resonance wavelength of 1849 A, as well as two other tunable (2omega(1)-omega(2)) frequency-mixed signals producing radiation at 2085 and 1833 A, are reported.