We report a laser experiment of astrophysical interest on radiative jet formation. Conically shaped targets are irradiated by intense laser light. An ablated plasma flow collides at the axis of the cone targets, then propagates at high Mach number, forming a jetlike structure. We measure time-resolved x-ray self-emission images from the jets. The diameter of the jet increases with decreasing atomic number of the irradiated target, suggesting that the collimation is due to radiative cooling. Two-dimensional simulations reproduce essential features of the experimental results.

We have developed a femtosecond high-intensity laser system that combines both Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) and optical parametric CPA (OPCPA) techniques and produces more than 30 J broadband output energy, indicating the potential for achieving peak powers in excess of 500 TW. With a cleaned high-energy seeded OPCPA preamplifier as a front end in the system, for the compressed pulse without pumping the final amplifier, we found that the temporal contrast in this system exceeds 10(10) on the subnanosecond time scales, and is near 10(12) on the nanosecond time scale prior to the peak of the main femtosecond pulse. Using diffractive optical elements for beam homogenization of a 100 J level high-energy Nd:glass green pump laser in a Ti:sapphire final amplifier, we have successfully generated broadband high-energy output with a near-perfect top-hat-like intensity distribution.

A novel design for a contact grating device with an incorporated Fabry-Perot resonator is proposed for high-power terahertz (THz) light generation. We deposited a multilayer consisting of Ta(2)O(5) and Al(2)O(3) on a magnesium-doped stoichiometric LiNbO(3) substrate and fabricated grating grooves on the outermost layer. The multilayer was designed such that conditions for a Fabry-Perot resonator were satisfied for light diffracted by the grating. Consequently, the fraction of light transmitted into the LiNbO(3) substrate, i.e., the diffraction efficiency, was enhanced by the resonator. The diffraction efficiency of the fabricated device was 71%, which is close to the calculated value of 78% from the optimized design. THz light generation was also demonstrated with the contact grating device. The THz output of 0.41 μJ was obtained using near-infrared pump light of 2.7 mJ.

A tabletop femtosecond time-resolved soft x-ray transient absorption spectrometer Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 073101 (2008);We show experimentally the possibility of nanostructuring (about 20 nm) of gold surface by picosecond soft x-ray single pulse with low fluence of $20 mJ/cm 2 . The nanometer-scale changes of the surface structure are due to the splash of molten gold under fluence gradient of the laser beam. In addition, the ablation process occurs at slightly higher fluence of $50 mJ/cm 2 . The atomistic model of ablation is developed which reveals that the low threshold fluence of this process is due to the build-up of the high electron pressure and the comparatively low electron-ion energy relaxation rate in gold. The calculated ablation depths as a function of the irradiation fluence are in good agreement with the experimental data measured for gold surface modification with ultra-short duration soft x-ray and visible lasers. V C 2012 American Institute of Physics.

A chirped pulse amplification laser with zigzag slab Nd:glass amplifiers dedicated to x-ray laser research is described. The laser provides a 1.6 ps duration pulse with approximately 7 J energy at a repetition rate of 0.1 Hz. In the power amplifier system, laser light is amplified in a two-step manner: The first step is image-relayed multipass amplification up to approximately 1 J with a 10 mm x 10 mm beam. The second step is double-pass amplification up to >10 J with a 10 mm x 90 mm beam. By using this laser system, the saturated amplification of the Ni-like Ag laser at a wavelength of 13.9 nm has been successfully demonstrated.