Investigations of Third-Harmonic Generation in Xenon by Means of a TOF Mass Spectrometer

TOF mass spectrometer for research of third-harmonic generation effect in isotropic media was used. The nonlinear medium in the experiment was Xe gas, the incident beam had the wavelength of 3546 Ǻ and the generated radiation had the wavelength of 1182 Ǻ. A measure for the intensity of generated VUV was the intensity of the ion current generated at the spot where a non-homogeneous effusive molecular (2,2-dimethylbutane) beam was crossed by the VUV beam. The influence of parameters like the diameter of the UV beam and the Xe pressure on the VUV generation process was examined. The third-larmonic generation theory was used to verify the mass spectrometric data.