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A two-stage optical-pumping scheme is considered for achieving laser action on the 199-Å lithium-ion resonance line. Incoherent radiation from a CO2 laser-produced plasma preferentially photoionizes the K shell of neutral lithium, producing highly energetic ions in the metastable 1s2s state. A detailed model of the system indicates that with an initial lithium vapor density ∼1014 cm−3, an effective metastability of several nsec can be obtained, allowing a drastic reduction in pumping requirements compared to schemes involving direct pumping of the upper laser level. After a sufficient buildup of metastable ions, a dye laser, tuned to the 9584-Å 1s2s 1S→1s2p 1P transition, is switched on, and lasing at 199 Å occurs due to the stimulated-resonant-Raman anti-Stokes process. At 1014 cm−3 initial vapor density, the resonant-Raman gain is ∼10 cm−1, so that a gain length ∼3 cm should be adequate to demonstrate lasing in a single pass. The dye laser acts as a traveling-wave excitation source, providing a collinear well-collimated x-ray laser beam.