Ultra-Intense, High Spatio-Temporal Quality Petawatt-Class Laser System and Applications

Abstract

This paper reviews techniques for improving the temporal contrast and spatial beam quality in an ultra-intense laser system that is based on chirped-pulse amplification (CPA). We describe the design, performance, and characterization of our laser system, which has the potential for achieving a peak power of 600 TW. We also describe OPEN ACCESSAppl. Sci. 2013, 3 215 applications of the laser system in the relativistically dominant regime of laser-matter interactions and discuss a compact, high efficiency diode-pumped laser system.

Single-Shot Temporal Contrast Enhancement Measurement of a Plasma Mirror by a Chirped Pulse

“…The temporal resolution is proportional to the chirp rate. The relationship can be written as Equation (2). The temporal resolution ∆ t of temporal contrast enhancement is equal to the product of the chirp rate C of the SOCP and the spectral resolution ∆ λ of the spectrometer.…”

“…In the past three decades, high-power ultrashort pulse lasers have been significantly improved with the rapid development of femtosecond technology and chirped pulse amplification (CPA) [1]. Several petawatt ultrashort pulses are currently available at petawatt-class laser facilities [2], such as APOLLON [3] and the extreme light infrastructure (ELI) facilities [4], etc. The duration of the ultrashort pulse reaches tens of femtoseconds, and the focused light intensity is up to 10 21 W/cm 2 [3], providing extreme physical conditions for various high-energy physics, including fast ignition of the compressed inertial fusion targets, laser-driven particle acceleration, and diagnostics for high-energy-density physics [5][6][7][8].…”

Particle-in-cell simulations of hot electron generation using defocused laser light in cone targets

“…Some of these look at reducing the amount of energy in the laser prepulse via technological improvements in the laser chain. 8 However, removing the prepulse entirely may not always be feasible or economic. The idea that is considered in this manuscript is that of changing the focus position of laser light and so reducing the laser intensity at the cone-wall.…”

Output temporal contrast simulation of a large aperture high power short pulse laser system

“…With the development of chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) and optical parametric CPA (OPCPA), extremely intense short pulse laser systems are increasingly applied to experimental investigations in 'fast ignition' inertial confinement fusion (ICF), laser-plasma interactions and strong field physics [1] . The European Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) has designed a 25 PW, 10 25 W cm −2 single laser beamline (ILE) [2] , in which the high temporal contrast required by pre-plasma-free interactions [3] will be one of the major challenges.…”