SUPERCONTINUUM GENERATION AT 248NM USING HIGH-PRESSURE GASES

Supercontinuum generation at 248 nm has been observed, for the first time to the authors' knowledge, by focusing subpicosecond laser pulses into neon, argon, and krypton gases at pressures as high as 40 atm. In the case of neon, the continuum spans a wavelength range reaching from the visible to well into the vacuum ultraviolet. In the range of 200 to 300 nm, the continuum obtained by using krypton is of particularly high quality and therefore well suited to applications in ultrafast spectroscopy in this wavelength range. © 1990 Optical Society of America.