Abstract

Many XUV laser schemes have used optical inversions in ions as the lasing medium, since ions typically have short wavelength transitions. One such scheme, the autoionization pumped laser¹, developed the required population inversion by exciting an autoionizing state which selectively autoionizes into excited states of the ion. One major flaw with this technique is that it is not always possible to find an autoionizing state with the correct branching ratio to produce a surplus of excited ions. Here we demonstrate that it is possible to complement an autoionizing state's normal branching ratio (ie R→1−R) by exciting it as a satellite to any other autoionizing state.

© 1986 Optical Society of America