We demonstrate efficient generation of picosecond narrow-bandwidth pulses by frequency mixing of broadband opposite chirped pulses in a type I doubling crystal. This procedure allows us to produce picosecond pulses that are perfectly synchronized with femtosecond pulses. The experiment shows a decrease of the initial bandwidth by a factor of more than 30, while a high conversion efficiency is maintained.
Results of an experimental study of multi-MeV bremsstrahlung x-ray sources created by picosecond laser pulses are presented. The x-ray source is created by focusing the short pulse in an expanding plasma obtained by heating a solid target with a time-delayed nanosecond laser beam. The high-energy part of the x-ray spectrum and emission lobe are inferred from photonuclear activation techniques. The x-ray dose is measured with silicon diodes. Two-dimensional images of the source are reconstructed from a penumbral imaging technique. These results indicate the creation of a relatively small source, below 200μm diameter, delivering doses up to 12mrad in air at 1m with x-ray temperature up to 2.8MeV. The diagnostics used give access to a whole set of coherent experimental results on the x-ray source properties which are compared to extensive numerical simulations. X-ray intensity and temperature are found to increase with the size of the preplasma.
Ultrahigh power laser pulses delivered by the Alisé beamline (26J, 32TW pulses) have been sent vertically into the atmosphere. The highly nonlinear propagation of the beam in the air gives rise to more than 400 self-guided filaments. This extremely powerful bundle of laser filaments generates a supercontinuum propagating up to the stratosphere, beyond 20km. This constitutes the highest power “atmospheric white-light laser” to date.
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