No abstract

Continuous phase plate (CPP), which has a function of beam shaping in laser systems, is one kind of important diffractive optics. Based on the Fourier transform of the Gerchberg-Saxton (G-S) algorithm for designing CPP, we proposed an optical diffraction method according to the real system conditions. A thin lens can complete the Fourier transform of the input signal and the inverse propagation of light can be implemented in a program. Using both of the two functions can realize the iteration process to calculate the near-field distribution of light and the far-field repeatedly, which is similar to the G-S algorithm. The results show that using the optical diffraction method can design a CPP for a complicated laser system, and make the CPP have abilities of beam shaping and phase compensation for the phase aberration of the system. The method can improve the adaptation of the phase plate in systems with phase aberrations.

Based on the optical transmission theory, the reason why front-surface particle contamination may induce the original damage of thin optical components is considered, and a damage mechanism is put forward: The localized thermal deformation of an optical element induced by the thermal effect of particle contamination together with the shading effect of it can disturb the laser beams. Simulated results show that for a high power laser, the localized thermal deformation of thin optical components, which disturbs the laser beam, is an important cause to produce strong light intensity modulations. The surface shape, phase delay, and thermal diffusion length of a localized thermal deformation are constantly changing with the increase of laser pulse shot number, so the highest light intensity modulation will be produced at different positions in the thickness direction or the xy direction on the rear-surface of an optical element. This not only can easily induce some damages on the rear-surface of the optical element, but also cause the interior damages scattered in the thickness direction.

Optical path design of high power laser facilities should consider several optimization measures such as those that are related to image transmission, ghost avoidance, and stray light management. According to the diffraction optical propagation theory, we study the the influences of wavefront characteristics of large aperture optical components on optimizing the design parameters of optical path in view of increasing the output load. The results show that the arrangement interval of the last stage optical drive can be very useful in improving the output load of the laser facilities if it is controlled to be over 6 m long. In general, a large aperture optical element with a phase error peak value of 0.34 can reduce the near field beam quality of a high-power laser by about 10% and give rise to a maximum decrease of about 21% when the phase error reaches 1.36. Superposition of multiple optical elements with different phase error distribution characteristics can reduce the negative effect of the mid frequency phase error. However, the nonlinear effect of large aperture optical components can aggravate the influence of the intermediate frequency phase error on the damage resistance capacity of the device. Under the premise that the damage threshold of the large caliber optical element is limited to 20 J/cm2, the using of a laser facility with a compact optical path, with an input laser energy density controlled to be below 16.8 J/cm2, will avoid damaging the optical components efficiently. A relatively flexible optical layout can further increase the average energy density of the final output laser and is very beneficial to the enhancing of the output load capacity of the laser facility.

Large aperture high-power laser drivers usually focus the high power laser beams in 22 quads to the target chamber center in order to increase the light intensity on the target plane. The large aperture wedged focus lenses are the core components in the focus system of quadruplets of beams, and it is thought possible to use four two-dimensional off-axis wedged focus lenses as four sub-lenses to make up a larger aperture wedged focus lens in form to focus the four beams. Given that the large aperture two-dimensional off-axis wedged focus lenses are processed and used difficultly, the wedged focus lenses are divided into three categories: the two-dimensional off-axis wedged focus lenses, the one-dimensional off-axis wedged focus lenses, and the non-off-axis wedged focus lenses. On the basis of the three modes of the wedged focus lenses and the corresponding specific incidence angles of each sub-beam, the three focus schemes for the 22 beam array are put forward to comparatively research the light intensity distribution on the target plane. Research results show that from a perspective of the coherence among the four sub-beams, the phase factors of each sub-beam respectively introducing by the three focus systems with the two-dimensional off-axis, one-dimensional off-axis, and non-off-axis wedged focus lenses are asymmetric, asymmetric and symmetric inside each sub-beam, and symmetric, asymmetric and symmetric among the four sub-beams. Therefore, the wave front consistency of the four sub-beams decreases in the order of the focus systems with the non-off-axis, two-dimensional off-axis, and one-dimensional off-axis wedged focus lenses. The focus schemes with the non-off-axis wedged focus lenses for 22 beam array can get the narrowest main-lobe, the strongest peak-value intensity, the highest energy concentration ratio on the target plane, followed by the one-dimensional off-axis and two-dimensional off-axis wedged focus lenses. The off-axis mode of the wedged focus lenses not only increases the complexity in the course of processing and using, but also increases the main-lobe size, decreases the peak-value intensity and the energy concentration ratio, which obtains a weaker focusing characteristics than that of the non-off-axis mode of the wedged focus lenses. Research results can provide an important reference for the design of the focus system in the target area of high-power laser drivers.