On identifying critical parameters in an amplification without inversion setup in mercury

Lasing without inversion is a compelling method based on the generation of coherences between atomic levels in order to produce UV radiation. While the proof-of-principle of this scheme has been shown for several decades, so far no radiation at a significant shorter wavelength than the necessary drive fields has been observed. In a recent publication Rein et al (2022 Phys. Rev. A 105 023722) have made experimental progress towards this goal. In this paper, we investigate the necessary improvements to their setup and discuss the experimental steps taken to achieve those goals. Specifically, we report on the improvement with respect to the laser sources.