High-performance amplification of coherent ∼25-ns light pulses from a tunable source operating at ∼840 nm with bandwidth near the Fourier limit

There is a need in the context of high-resolution laser spectroscopy for pulsed, tunable, single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) coherent light sources with high peak power and narrow optical bandwidth. This holds particularly in the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) region, where nonlinear-optical (NLO) upconversion is essential to generate required wavelengths. For instance, narrowband 120-nm VUV radiation, generated by pulsed dye amplification of a cw tunable Ti:sapphire laser and NLO upconversion, has been used [1] to measure the 2 1S ← 1 1S two-photon absorption transition of helium (He) as a test of quantum-electrodynamic theory.