Tunable coherent vacuum ultraviolet generation in carbon monoxide in the 1150 Å range

Coherent and tunable over 500 cm-1 radiation in the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) in the 1150 Å region has been generated by resonantly enhanced 4-wave sum frequency mixing in carbon monoxide. Theoretical estimates of the third-order nonlinear susceptibility are shown to be in reasonable agreement with the observed conversion efficiency in CO.