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.