1,000x more efficient tabletop laser could power future nuclear clocks

Physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder, led by Henry Kapteyn and Margaret Murnane of JILA, have developed a new vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) laser that is 100 to 1,000 times more efficient than existing technologies. This compact, tabletop device generates bright light in the challenging VUV wavelength range (approximately 100 to 200 nanometers), which has been difficult to access with practical systems due to strong absorption by most materials. The laser operates by combining red and blue laser beams and passing them through an anti-resonant hollow core fiber filled with xenon gas, which absorbs and re-emits the light at shorter VUV wavelengths. This innovation enables higher resolution microscopy, real-time tracking of chemical reactions, and detection of microscopic defects in nanoelectronics. Beyond imaging applications, the new laser could significantly advance the development of ultra-precise nuclear clocks, which measure time based on energy transitions within atomic nuclei rather than electrons. Such clocks rely on thorium atoms