The objective of the Apollon 10 PW project is the generation of 10 PW peak power pulses of 15 fs at 1 shot min −1 . In this paper a brief update on the current status of the Apollon project is presented, followed by a more detailed presentation of our experimental and theoretical investigations of the temporal characteristics of the laser. More specifically the design considerations as well as the technological and physical limitations to achieve the intended pulse duration and contrast are discussed.

International audienceThe manipulation of ultraintense laser beams gets increasingly challenging with growing laser peak power, as the breakdownof conventional optics imposes ever largerbeamdiameters. Using compact plasma-based optical elements to control or even generate such beams1–4 is a promising approach, since plasmas can sustain considerable light intensities.We introduce a new type of plasma optics, called plasma holograms, by initiating plasma expansion on a flat solid target with a holographic prepulse beam focus. A modulated plasma surface then grows out of the target after ionization, which can be used for several picoseconds to diffract and spatially shape ultraintense laser beams. On the basis of this concept, we demonstrate the generation of fork plasma gratings, which we use to induce optical vortices on a femtosecond laser beam as well as its high-order harmonics, at intensities exceeding 1019Wcm-2. These plasma holograms open up a whole new range of possibilities for the manipulation of ultraintense lasers and the generation of structured coherent short-wavelength sources

The objective of the Apollon project is the generation of 10 PW peak power pulses of 15 fs at 1 shot/minute. In this paper the Apollon facility design, the technological challenges and the current progress of the project will be presented.

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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.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is the first of its kind megajoule-class laser facility with 192 beams capable of delivering over 1.8 MJ and 500TW of 351 nm light for high accuracy laser-matter interaction experiments. It has been commissioned and operated since 2009 to support a wide range of missions including the study of inertial confinement fusion, high energy density physics, material science, and laboratory astrophysics. In the first section of this paper we discuss the current status of laser performance obtained during the 408 target experiments completed in 2017. The performance spanned a wide range of laser energies, powers and pulse durations as requested for these target experiments. A special emphasis is given on energy delivery and cone power accuracy in the UV, as these are key parameters for successful experiments. In the second section of the paper, the results obtained during the 2017 performance quad campaign are briefly described. During this campaign a series of laser-only shots were taken to perform tests at elevated energies on a single NIF quad. These tests were designed to assess laser performance limits and operational costs against predictive models. This campaign culminated with the delivery of ~54 kJ of UV on a single quad of NIF, and 14 kJ on a single beam aperture, which are both to our knowledge the largest energies achieved to date for a neodymium-glass, frequency tripled architecture.

The investigation of spatio-temporal couplings (STCs) of broadband light beams is becoming a key topic for the optimization as well as applications of ultrashort laser systems. This calls for accurate measurements of STCs. Yet, it is only recently that such complete spatio-temporal or spatio-spectral characterization has become possible, and it has so far mostly been implemented at the output of the laser systems, where experiments take place. In this survey, we present for the first time STC measurements at different stages of a collection of high-power ultrashort laser systems, all based on the chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) technique, but with very different output characteristics. This measurement campaign reveals spatio-temporal effects with various sources, and motivates the expanded use of STC characterization throughout CPA laser chains, as well as in a wider range of types of ultrafast laser systems. In this way knowledge will be gained not only about potential defects, but also about the fundamental dynamics and operating regimes of advanced ultrashort laser systems.