Laser-plasma-based vacuum-ultraviolet light source for tunable single-photon ionization.

Vacuum-UV radiation from Xe jet-target laser-produced plasmas has been produced, spectrally dispersed, and efficiently focused onto a line-shaped interaction volume by adopting an embedded-in-the-chamber spectrograph geometry. Time-resolved 2D Rayleigh light scattering imaging has been carried out for visualizing the gas jet-laser plasma interaction and optimizing the emission intensity and the spectral resolution. We have calibrated the measured photon fluxes, reaching values higher than 10(13) photons/pulse cm(2) nm in the 100-200 nm wavelength range within the first 20 ns from the laser pulse onset. The vacuum-UV light source is predicted to enable sensitive and selective single-photon ionization for time-of-flight mass spectrometry and similar vacuum-UV spectroscopy applications.