That wavelength of light, classified as deep ultraviolet, is too short to be visible to humans. But FELL researchers were able to see the white-blue glow the laser beam made on a phosphor screen. Litvinenko led the group that set that earlier record in Novosibirsk. And Igor Pinayev, a Russian scientist currently at Duke's FELL, was another group member there.
Electrons provide the energy for all lasers.
But because those in normal lasers remain bound within the structures of atoms, they can emit only a limited number of discrete wavelengths of light. The OK-4 works by passing electrons through a series of magnets, which force the electrons to emit light. The Russian laser was moved to Duke in May 1995 as part of a collaborative agreement between BINP and FELL to develop advanced ultraviolet free-electron lasers. The object was to combine Duke's state of the art electron storage ring with the record setting Russian laser. I'm pretty sure the world will hear about us on rather many occasions in the future.