The generation of a tunable laser emission in the vacuum ultraviolet and its application to supersonic jet/multiphoton ionization mass spectrometry

An optical parametric oscillator and a Ti:sapphire laser are used as a pump source for the generation of high-order vibrational stimulated Raman emission in the vacuum ultraviolet region. This tunable laser is employed as an excitation/ionization source in a supersonic jet/multiphoton ionization/ time-of-flight mass spectrometric study of benzene. The merits and potential advantages of this approach are discussed in this study.