We present the experimental demonstration of a subaperture compression scheme achieved in the PETAL (PETawatt Aquitaine Laser) facility. We evidence that by dividing the beam into small subapertures fitting the available grating size, the sub-beam can be individually compressed below 1 ps, synchronized below 50 fs and then coherently added thanks to a segmented mirror.
The Petawatt Aquitaine Laser (PETAL) facility was designed and constructed by the French Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA) as an additional PW beamline to the Laser MegaJoule (LMJ) facility. PETAL energy is limited to 1 kJ at the beginning due to the damage threshold of the final optics. In this paper, we present the commissioning of the PW PETAL beamline. The first kJ shots in the amplifier section with a large spectrum front end, the alignment of the synthetic aperture compression stage and the initial demonstration of the 1.15 PW @ 850 J operations in the compression stage are detailed. Issues encountered relating to damage to optics are also addressed.
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.
Abstract. The status of the PETAL project is presented in this paper. The global architecture and performances of this facility are detailed with the first experimental results obtained on the LIL facility, and with the main steps which will allow shooting in the center of the target chamber. Some technical issues like wavefront correction, damage threshold in femtosecond regime and focusing are presented.
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